Swedish Death Candy - Swedish Death Candy album review

Sweet-toothed London psych stoners erupt

Swedish Death Candy - Swedish Death Candy album artwork

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Understanding the impact of a good name, Swedish Death Candy actually hail from London, but that should have nothing to do with their debut album’s exhilarating blitzkrieg of stoner doom riffage and snaking flights mixed with transcendent vocal harmonies. They cut a stellar dash and boast influences as diverse as Black Sabbath, The Beatles and Can. Lead single Last Dream and Living Your Life Away bend trusty riffs to their own devices, with Hendrix-style dual guitar and soaring chorale, all doused in spangled widescreen production. Broken Engrams is a scorching example of how they can suddenly turn an express train Motörhead rampage (with motorik undertow) on its heel and lurch into slow-mo log todger heave before flicking a switch and going off again. After an initial three-song bombardment, Avalanche sees Perry reliving his experience of being rescued in the Alps with a crystalline guitar blizzard, while Liquorice, Pt II & III is a sequel to 2016’s debut EP track about a nutter becoming the sun and destroying the planet, switching between wah-wah funk and Blue Cheer bombast. There are some interesting things going on here.

Kris Needs

Kris Needs is a British journalist and author, known for writings on music from the 1970s onwards. Previously secretary of the Mott The Hoople fan club, he became editor of ZigZag in 1977 and has written biographies of stars including Primal Scream, Joe Strummer and Keith Richards. He's also written for MOJO, Record Collector, Classic Rock, Prog, Electronic Sound, Vive Le Rock and Shindig!