Millencolin
Machine 15
Epitaph/ Shock


Swedish punk rockers Millencolin's seventh album (count 'em - seven) is comprised of a series of seemingly irreconcilable poles. I'll elaborate:

1. It is both feverishly earnest in its emotional intensity, and the most easy-going record the band have yet recorded. Tracks like the hard-rocking, pleading Done Is Done and Ducks & Drakes sit a little uncomfortably alongside tracks like the synth-carrying Turnkey Paradise and Come On ("it's easy as pie"). There is something of a traditionalist pop-music approach to a lot of the chord progressions and arrangements across the disc which are juxtaposed (often successfully) against the gravelly, persistent vocals of singer Nikola Sarcevic.

2. Producer Lou Giordano works both for and against a successful outcome. The band decided to return to Giordano (who slickened up 2002's 'Home From Home' good and proper), and his crisp sound services one of the two styles of tracks mentioned above, while dampening the energy of the other (I'll let you work out which one's which).

3. It is both incredibly familiar, and the most daring Millencolin album yet. Lead single Detox is pretty obviously just Fox, Mk. II (let's face it, it's more like Fox, Mk. VIII), but the strings that pepper Saved By Hell and in particular Done Is Done are masterfully executed, and fascinating in their syncopation.

4. Finally, it is both a little uninteresting (Broken World is pretty average stuff), and a whole lot of fun. After 15 years, the band don't sound tired, don't sound bored, and Sarcevic's ability to craft a hook is as ever-present as ever: Detox is a great single, after all, and the nostalgic Brand New Game sounds as passionate and inspiring as ever. And then there's the poignancy of Vicious Circle or the angsty grunge of Saved By Hell, which are both simply brilliant. But, in a world where everything's either introverted emo or arty post-punk, is there still room for a straight up pop-rock band, even a Swedish one?

Matt Vesely