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LÖANSHARK “No Sins To Confess”
LÖANSHARK “No Sins To Confess”
By Dr. Abner Mality
The spirit of the 80’s will never die! And neither will the umlaut! The list of bands with a couple of dots above a vowel (or even a consonant) in their name is now legion. All praise BLUE ÖYSTER CULT, who kicked it all off!
The latest umlaut and 80’s obsessed band is LÖANSHARK outta Barcelona, Spain and these guys have speed metal and NWOBHM coursing through their veins. “No Sins To Confess” doesn’t apologize for sounding like they’re from 1983...that’s what they were aiming for! They do nail that special sound pretty well….NWOBHM stuff like BLITZKRIEG and PARALLEX but given an extra jolt of speed. There’s also a good shot of early Swedish stuff like AXEWITCH and OVERDRIVE here as well and even a bit of sleaze. The band seems taken with 80’s crime films, resulting in tracks like “Another Man In the Trunk” and “Bad Guys Don’t Lose”. That makes it a little different than the usual sword and sorcery stuff.
The songwriting is sharp and tracks like “Electric Shockin’ Waves”, “Another Man In the Trunk” and “Open Fire” really blaze along. Some cuts are not as speed-injected, like “Wet N’ Wild” which has a real sleazy grind to it that’s kind of cool, and “Heavy Metal Addicts”, which has a lot of JUDAS PRIEST in it. Yeah, the lyrics are kind of corny and the heartless would say LÖANSHARK is dated, but they don’t care and are upfront about what they are after.
A couple of things keep this from being a really great record. The production to me just doesn’t seem quite right and is kind of “soft”, especially in the bass and drums. They are trying to capture that early 80’s sound, but sometimes that’s not always the best idea. Also, the lead vocals of Lögan Heads (Holy shit, even his name has an umlaut in it!) are not as good as they could be. They are high and melodic, like most NWOBHM singers, but his accent is VERY obvious and the whole effect is on the average side. But neither of these issues stops “No Sins To Confess” from being an enjoyable album.
Definitely one for those who love the 80’s and a ton of umlauts in their band names!
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