After 'The Little Hands of Asphalt' we'll stay in Norway for an introduction to a band we haven't featured before, but that have started to make a real impression particularly in the last 12 months - notably with a performance at 'Øya', and whom this weekend will make an appearance at 'by:Larm' in Oslo. 'From Scratch', as the name suggests, started from absolutely nothing, but have quickly evolved into an interesting alternative rock band who blend a variety of rock styles to

We've never hesitated in delving into some of the darker Nordic releases, which probably started with our review of The Janitors in the very early days (or did it all start with attending a Fields of the Nephalim gig when I was 18...?), and Swedish band 'Orochen' have made a good impression with their latest EP release entitled 'Mechanical Eyes', a sprawling and dense 4 tracks of gleefully dark mutterings which fuse together post rock ambition and alternative rock and gothic

I'm still really tempted to do a mammoth feature on all the stuff we missed in 2019, a no nonsense journey around the Nordic regions trying to capture as many different styles and genres as possible, because the reality is that there's just so much good stuff out there that I keep coming across even now. Finnish band 'Dear Moon' would certainly have been included in that feature, but actually they warrant just that bit of extra attention anyway, because their debut single 'De

There are, of course, 2 ways to consider the release of new single 'Jonah' by Norwegian alternative rock colossus 'Major Parkinson' so early on in January, depending on whether your post New Year glass is still half full, or now half empty. The first possibility is that this a welcome sign that 2020 is going to be a fabulous year of new releases, and that we're heading for 12 months of musical treats. The other perspective is that, quite frankly, a 'Major Parkinson' single i

We're determined somehow to get in 12 new albums before Christmas, before we take a few days break and return for the inevitable 'Favourite Albums of the Year' list, with our favourite of all being far from inevitable - mainly due to the absence of a Major Parkinson release in 2019. Firstly this week, we'll head to Denmark for a band who's roots are far from Nordic, but still qualify for inclusion because we're really not too bothered about enforcing any 'rules'. 'Human Growt

We hopefully should be featuring an Album a Day this week, and after the melodic strains of 'Agacy' yesterday, today we feature Swedish rock band 'Phogg', who have a psychedelic and even slightly progressive basis to their music. There a 4 piece band from 'Stockholm' who debuted with an EP called 'Zun, Stein & Graaf' in 2017, followed by an album 'Slices' last year, and their new release curiously entitled 'Mofeto: Mashine Adamkosh' was released back in September. Since the r

We covered a huge selection of releases on our birthday (Friday / Saturday), and we have some album reviews planned for this week ('Warning Warning' and more), but just a quick video to start the week, because what everyone needs on a very cold and icy Monday morning is some charming Vietnemese ladies dancing to some warped Post Punk guitar music. It comes courtesy of Danish band 'Twin Dive', whom we haven't featured before, and their music is alternative guitar driven noise,

We've covered so many different styles / genres of music yesterday and today, but we haven't had anything too 'loud', so we'll correct that now with some Norwegian hardcore punk. Actually although Lüdo classify themselves as a 'hardcore punk' band, I definitely regard this as relatively accessible, in that both lyrically and musically there are interesting elements to cling on to. So Lüdo are from 'Kristiansand' and they're a 5 piece band that have released a selection of tr

After featuring 'rauður' and 'Elmarit', I do feel we need to mix things up somewhat, and 'Cherokee Death Cats' sound like the perfect band to do it. They're an Anglo / Swedish duo based out of Gothenburg, comprising Bea Persson and Rat Westlake and their music is a mix of garage rock and dirty pop punk - written with a directness that pretty much means you always know what you're going to get. So the latest 'Cherokee Death Cats' EP was released on 1st November, but it comes n

It doesn't really seem like 5 years since we saw 'Kalandra' supporting Moddi at the 'Castle Hotel' in Manchester, or indeed first wrote about them, but this band have developed such a good reputation from those that have heard them, and it's such a privilege to have been able to follow their progress. The band, consisting of Katrine Ødegård Stenbekk, Florian Bernhard Döderlein Winter and Jogeir Daae Mæland. released their debut EP 'Beneath the Breaking Waves' back in 2017 and

To state the obvious, people are entitled to entertain themselves in pretty much any way that they choose. My Great Uncle Ivan (God rest his soul...) used to buy 3 flagons of 'Cripple Cock' Farmyard Scrumpy every Sunday morning, and settle down in the afternoon to watch 'Bullseye' and 'Little and Large' - and anyone attempting to interrupt his viewing would be subject to a barrage of unintelligible Devonian cursing. Now I realise that he wasn't exactly setting the entertainme

We really have to get working on an Album Review or two, but we'll offer up one more brand new single release, and it's from our old friends 'St. Bennett's', who may have got in our good books early on by pointing out they also loved 'Major Parkinson' (it's a guaranteed way of getting our attention) but have clearly been worthy of inclusion in their own right thanks to a great set of songs which comprise their 'The Devil Awaits' EP - an EP which is now completed thanks to the

We've been meaning to drop this in for the last couple of weeks, and after featuring a couple of radio friendly songwriters, it feels like a good time to balance that up with a really hard hitting, but totally engrossing track (or at least some of it) from Danish band 'Heathe', which was recorded as part of the 'Tapetown Sessions' which we've featured so regularly on these pages. So 'Heathe' are from 'Aalborg', and they're actually a fluid line-up based around project leader

So here's a band that will wake you up on your Wednesday morning commute. 'Nancy's Dead' are from Stockholm, and they've been playing together in their current line-up since 2003, although the band was actually formed back in the early 1990's, which is some achievement in itself. Anyway it's always good to re-invent yourself once in a while, and 'Nancy's Dead' have just done exactly that, renaming themselves from their previous incarnation which was simply 'Nancy'. It's under

We've already introduced one new Finnish band today ('Spring Teeth') and we might have time for some new 'Stillwalkers' later, but we've been really looking forward to introducing 'Pink Chameleons', because they're fronted by none other than Paltsa-Kai Salama, the lead vocalist from one of our favourite bands 'Black Lizard' - we've also written about his solo material previously too. In this new project, an interesting fusion of blues, garage and country he's joined with fell

I decided last week that if I could get this thing back on track I'd treat myself to listening / writing about the new 'Moron Police' single, and we're pretty much getting there - so here is their new(ish) song, it's called 'Captain Awkward' and as expected it's a highly enjoyable romp, which will take you on a journey across musical boundaries and genres and leave you sitting with a huge, if slightly astonished, smile on your face. We featured the 1st single of the Norwegian

I'm not entirely sure that a dark David Lynch inspired video somewhere from the depths of the underground music scene is quite the way to start a beautiful Summers day, but we'll go straight in there, because it's actually a pretty fantastic release. 'Twin Dive' are from Denmark, and they're a trio we've missed out on so far, but their unique brand of alternative grunge / punk has made quite an impression this year, particularly with their appearance at SPOT festival. Their n

I keep hearing that the popularity of albums is on the decline, but sometimes only an album can really define a band, and only through a collection of tracks are they really able to capture our attention - I guess it's the reason we keep on stating that we'll always give priority to albums at Nordic Music Review. Norwegian band 'Monalia' are a great example, I've heard a few individual tracks over the past year and been interested enough to write their album release date dow

We'll try to cover all the Nordic countries and all genres of music too today, so we'll head to Finland next and alternative rock band 'Nothing but Sunshine', a 5 piece outfit from Helsinki who we featured last year and were founded by Jaakko Suni – previously known as the drummer in Finnish indie band Murmansk and also including other members from the same band, as well as fellow indie band Mesmer. 'White Lies' is the debut EP from 'Nothing but Sunshine', and the plan is tha

We featured Norwegian band 'St Bennett's' a few weeks ago when they released 'Oh Sweet Devil', the tale of the farmer who heads out on to the battlefield following the death of his daughter and wife. Anyway the cheery fables of 'St Bennett's' farmer continue, and 'Avery' is another entertaining musical story from the band who fuse alternative rock anthems with a folk narrative. So if you didn't read our first feature on 'St Bennetts', well they follow in the footsteps of som