Fuzzmasters
'Hellroad Caravan' is the fourth album from Finnish band Mannhai, now featuring ex-Amorphus vocalist Pasi Koskinen. Now if you haven't heard Mannhai before you could be forgiven for taking one look at their picture and coming to the conclusion that they were yet more Scandanavian dark metal merchants. Thankfully you'd be wrong, Mannhai steer a much straighter path these days and deal primarily in hard edged, yet accessible, rock and roll.
The album starts with the upbeat 'Shellshock' that makes an immediate impression with its catchy riff and urgent delivery. Shades of 'Backyard Babies' come to mind and that's no bad thing but on the following track 'Fuzzmaster' the cited Sabbath influence certainly comes to the fore. The heavy riff could easily have been penned by one Mr.Iommi but unlike his Sabbath counterparts although Koskinen does a decent job on the vocal front there's nothing really distinctive about his voice. Therein lies one of the problems with 'Hellroad Caravan', it's perfectly executed and there are some fine moments, you can't fault the production or the standard of musicianship but there is nothing to make it really stand out.
Of course there are one or two highlights such as 'Back In Red' that has more punch in its delivery than some of the other tracks. Likewise 'Rock In A Cradle' works because it's just a good, fast rock song. When Mannhai try to inject psychedelic riffs (as they often do) they just don't seem to flow well, that was always the problem with bands like Monster Magnet; when they stray from the tried and tested formula they just seem to lose the impact and become rather rambling. Occasionally though Mannhai do get the mix right and on 'Hall of Dead' they layer the psychedelic influence over the top of the song rather than making it the focus. This works far better and results in an impressive and lengthy track that gives hints towards how good Mannhai could be.
Even though they are four albums in you get the impression that Mannhai still haven't quite found their sound. Moments of great promise give way to moments of mediocrity and confusion, which make 'Hellroad Caravan' more of an interesting listen than a great listen.