Customer Reviews

Spirit Black

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Jorn Lande, one the finest voices of the rock/metal scene of recent times, and also one of this era's most frustrating artists. We know what this man is capable of and we continue to wait for the absolute classic masterpiece album that we always think is just around the corner, but instead get more Jorn plodding songs. A year or two ago I would have jumped in an got any album the man had his name on, but after being immensely disappointed with his previous album Lonely Are The Brave I had some reservations about this one until a friend persuaded me to buy it. And thank the stars he did! This is the best album Jorn has released in many years under his solo band moniker, and arguably even THE best.

The biggest criticisms I have of his solo albums are that they all tend to be formulaic, and suffer from too many plodding songs in the vein of some Dio/Black Sabbath songs. Rarely on these albums does he rip the throttle open, and vocally I don't think he pushes himself enough either. In my opinion his better vocal performances are on the Ark album Burn The Sun, Millenium's Hourglass album and the first two Masterplan albums. Then when you consider the two Allen-Lande albums and his vocal contributions for Tobias Sammett's Avantasia album Scarecrow (and what an effing great song that one is too!), I think it's plainly obvious that Jorn's best vocal performances come when he works with other musicians. Like many other great singers, I think he needs to work with other musicians to bring out his best. With his solo work I think he tends to stay within his comfort zone which is a shame as this is not when Jorn flies with the gods of rock.

As far as Spirit Black goes though, thankfully he has a better batch of songs on this album and whilst as usual there are the more plodding tracks, he does let fly on occasion and the plodders are better than those on his other recent solo albums. Road Of The Cross is a perfect example of this. The song sounds like Dio and Iommi could have done it on Black Sabbath's Heaven & Hell album almost three decades ago, but that's a good thing! It was a great Black Sabbath album and this is a great song, one of the albums best.

The opening track is another I like a lot, which has a riff and beat to it that reminds me of the classic Montrose song Rock Candy. Again Jorn has chosen to open with a slower paced track rather than a cannon shot as most artists do these days, but still it's a great song and it works. The last half of the album in my view is better than the first, with the second five songs (I got the digi-pack with bonus track) all being great. Rock And Roll Angel is my favorite song on the album. An acoustic opening with mellow vocals before the big guitars kick in, then a great chorus. And I really couldn't give a toss what the lyrics actually are, the song just sounds so pure old school cool! I love it.

Burn Your Flame is a welcome increase in speed, reminiscent of some of the classic Whitesnake or Coverdale era Deep Purple rockers. Gimme more of this anytime! World Gone Mad is another I love with a great sounding old school hard rock riff and thumping drums, with Jorn's magic voice over the top. I Walk Alone is another slower paced song which initially sounds like it's gonna be another of the usual Jorn plodders, but man when this one gets going it's magical. The chorus lets Jorn open up those lungs and push himself to produce his best. (And noteworthy... it's a song written by someone else). The chorus makes this song very infectious.

The Sun Goes Down is probably my second favorite song on the album, so I'm really glad I got the version with this one on it! (Again... written by someone else, i.e. Thin Lizzy). Although the hard rocking guitars and pounding drums are absent, this song is so smooth, with a great groove, a majestic guitar solo sounding very Pink Floyd-ish, it's just way cool. A great song to finish the album.

The other three songs I haven't mentioned so far (Below, Last Revolution and City In Between) are by no means bad songs, but really they are just average Jorn songs which don't compare the rest of the album.

In general I don't think Spirit Black is as good as any of the albums Jorn has released with the other bands I mentioned earlier in this review, but it's definitely right up there as far as his solo stuff goes and I find it a thoroughly enjoyable album that gets frequent play out of my home and car audio systems. Plus it's got to get the votes for best album cover of the year. (I don't understand it, but it looks effing wicked!) If you're Jorn fan you won't be disappointed. And if you're a fan of hard rock/metal and haven't got into Jorn yet, be prepared to spend a lot of money buying his work! But it's well worth it.

Jorn Lande is one of the keepers of the melodic rock flame. His singing style is comparable to David Coverdale with even more power and passion. I know it sounds hard to believe but it's true. His songwriting is strong reflecting his classic rock influences such as Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple and Whitesnake. The production on his albums is second to none. The only negative points I can mention regarding his last few solo albums is that the songs can get a little too similar in style and the album running times are getting shorter. These are minor complaints in light of the consistent quality of music he releases and I have no hesitation in recommending this latest solo album. The bonus track "The Sun Goes Down" by Thin Lizzy is definitely a highlight of this release.

I'm not really a heavy metal fan; some of it is okay. But how can you not like this guy? This is very, very good. Love the hard edge, his powerful voice, which comes across very clear (he doesn't shout incomprehensibly). Spirit Black, I Walk Alone, and Road of the Cross . . . my favourites, but all are good. Lyrics outstanding. Buy it for this fair price if you like hard rocking music!

I'm starting to wonder if Norwegian super-vocalist Jorn Lande ever takes a break. Just one year after releasing both the Lonely Are the Brave album the Live in the USA DVD and contributing to the latest Ayreon and Avantasia releases, Jorn is back with Spirit Black, his sixth studio offering. And that's in addition to a new "best of" compilation and allegedly rejoining Masterplan.

I think Lonely are the Brave is a stronger album, but Spirit Black is still pretty amazing. I've yet to hear a bad (or even mediocre) Jorn album, and I'm happy to report that Jorn doesn't disappoint here. Spirit Black seems a bit darker than Lonely are the Brave, but it's still the same essential Whitesnake/Dio/Thin Lizzy-inspired melodic hard rock that Jorn is so well known for. I love the 80's style anthem "Rock and Roll Angel", and "World Gone Mad", "Road of the Cross" and the title track all stand out, but there really isn't a weak moment on the entire album. The album's closing song - "I Walk Alone" - is an interesting choice, having previously been written for former Nightwish diva Tarja Turunen's debut solo album. I've heard both versions, and I have to say Jorn makes it sound like it was written just for him.

If you're already a Jorn fan, do you really need anyone telling you this album's worth buying? Every Jorn album is worth buying, and Spirit Black is no exception. For those of you who may have heard Jorn elsewhere and are just now looking into his solo material, you're in for a treat.

Edition Notes: Early versions of Spirit Black come housed in a digipack and include a bonus track - a cover of Thin Lizzy's "The Sun Goes Down". You know how great Jorn is with covers, and you know he loves some Thin Lizzy, so this one is definitely worth the money.

As good as his previous "solo" albums were, I always felt that, as a whole, these albums weren't quite up to the standards set by his work in "bands", especially the 2nd Ark album and Allen & Lande. Though they all have some good songs, and a couple of great ones, each also had songs that I just didn't care for.

But Spirit Black grabbed me upon first listen and has only gotten better with subsequent listens. It's every bit as good as World Changer and Out To Every Nation, my personal favorites among his 6 solo releases (not counting "The Gathering" since it's really a best of, Unlocking the Past and Live in America).

And it's definitley a (big) step up from his prior release, Lonely are the Brave, which is my least favorite album with him. Of course there's no such thing as a bad Jorn album so it's really a matter of degrees of good.

In fact, if you are new to Jorn, and are wondering what to start with, I would recommend this after only Allen and Lande's The Battle and Ark's Burn the Sun, a position I used to recommend The Gathering for.

But among these 3 I'm sure that, once you get one of them, you'll get the other 2 soon after.

Before purchasing the Jorn's Dio album, I had never really been a big fan. I'd loved what I'd heard when he performed guest vocals elsewhere, or as part of Masterplan or Ark, but his solo stuff just didn't grab me. Until one day, it did. And it started with Spirit Black. I like to listen to Rhapsody to check out an artist as much as possible before I buy a CD, to make sure it's not an impulse buy. I found myself constantly going back to Spirit Black, to the point where I figured it was time to just fork out the cash and buy it.

The production on this album is spectacular. The instrumentation and Jorn's voice combine for an awesome wall of sound, but everything is clear and distinguishable. Also, Jorn does not appear to participate in the loudness war. The CD is mastered such that the dynamics of the songs are real and noticeable. It has to be one of the best-sounding albums I've purchased recently.

If you like melodic hard rock/metal, you need to own this. I purchased the limited edition with "The Sun Goes Down," which I recommend. Along with "I Walk Alone," it's one of two cover songs on this edition (unless you count "City Inbetween," which is a cover of one of Jorn's early songs with another band, Vagabond) -- and Jorn completely owns them. I have to admit to not being all that familiar with Thin Lizzy or Tarja's solo work, so I didn't realize they were covers at first. When I listened to the originals, I have to say that Jorn has them beat hands-down.

Be warned: if you're new to Jorn, you might find yourself addicted. Case in point: I created a spreadsheet of his entire discography (solo and otherwise), and am steadily checking the items off my list. I am currently (eagerly) awaiting four other CDs (one solo and all three Allen/Lande). Highly recommended.

One last thought: if you're of a religious mindset (specifically Christian), the cover art might be offputting, with the cross burning in the background. While Jorn seems to be critical of organized religion (as a Christian myself, I freely admit there are many things to criticize), there is nothing lyrically that is blatantly anti-God or otherwise offensive.

Update 12/30/2011: Since I first posted this review, I have, indeed, imbibed the Kool-Aid and purchased every single one of Jorn's solo CDs, as well as many of his other projects. Being an OCD completist, my next task is to acquire the Japanese editions so I can have *all* the songs. Also, the production values on this album are pretty standard for Jorn's solo releases, with the lone exception of his debut, Starfire. Not that Starfire sounds bad, but when compared to everything after it (starting with Worldchanger) it's obviously a first effort with more of a demo feel to it. I don't know what Jorn's production budgets are, but he makes it sound like he's got all the money in the world. And that's a good thing to this hard rock fan's ears.

"Spirit black" is the 6th solo album by Norwegian rock/metal singer Jorn Lande, originally released in 2009. The line up finds beyond Jorn established members guitarist Tore Moren, drummer Willy Bendiksen and bassist Sid Ringsby along with new entry guitarist Jimmy Iversen, replacing Viggo Lofstad.

In terms of direction it would be fair to say that "Spirit Black" is by far the grooviest album in the singer's solo catalogue and as its title suggests, conceptually darkest work of Jorn's to date. A fair part of the songs are mid-tempo, featuring rather oriental melodies; the album is supported by superior production with incredible drum sound and over the top guitar sound-you can even hear every minor detail that comes out of the guitars, drums or bass as all instruments are captured exemplary on "Spirit black".

As all previous Jorn albums, "Spirit black" includes a good number of standout tracks including "Below", "Road of the cross" and "World gone mad" to name but a few. As most albums of Jorn, "Spirit black" follows the tradition of including cover versions of rock/metal songs, in this case "I walk alone", the song that first appeared on Tarja Turunen's solo debut along with the "Thin Lizzy" classic "The sun goes down". Overall "Spirit black" stands as the darkest Jorn album to date, effectively taking the singer into new musical territory while retaining his established style.

does not sound like the Dio tribute
it did not catch right away like their new song called a song for Ronnie James on the
Tribute album.
so I am a little bummed

This is my first introduction to Jorn and I'm very impressed! It's strong from beginning to end and I can easily detect the strong influence from Dio who, in my opinion, was the world's greatest rocker. Some of my favorite groups are from Europe (Hammerfall, Edguy, Dream Evil) and this Norwegian gem may be added to that list after I check out more of his work.

This is one of the best cds of 2009 its that good.I heard black sabbath whitesnake ,acdc/ even thin lizzy in this cd.It not offten a writter pays tribute to so many differt bands on one cd but jorn does.The standouts are the spirit black ,city in between, rock and roll angels , world gone mad ,the sun goes down ,the thin lizzy sounding song.If you are looking for a great cd ,that is well written and produce ,buy this cd ,iam sure it wont let you down.I hope this review was helpfull to you.