Story Teller’s new release ‘Riding the Stars’

[Editor’s Note: The band is mentioned below is from Iceland not Sweden as was previously stated in the review].

I’ll admit that when I popped Story Teller’s newest release, Riding the Stars, into my CD player and heard the first few measures of their Icelandic version of hard rock, I was skeptical. Looking at the band’s photo didn’t quell my trepidation either — the boys and their Euro fashion sense aren’t too pretty on the eyes. That all doesn’t matter though, because the music they make is, by and large, pretty on the ears and a refreshing break from what you might be hearing lately.

The album starts out fairly epic, with “The One I Can’t Live Without.” Don’t be fooled by the title. The song is a nice progression. It’s more than seven minutes of hard rock that gets just heavy enough to show technical prowess and metal credibility but not enough to detract from an otherwise fine melody.

The front man, Agust Orn, and his vocals remind me a lot of James Hetfield from Metallica, only Orn comes off a bit deeper in tone than his hard rock peer. This works pretty well to complement what Story Teller has going on musically. What they have going on is a perfect blend of Jimi Hendrix and the Red Hot Chili Peppers. I know it sounds strange to liken a Swedish hard rock band, with definite metal tendencies to a psychedelic rock god and California’s favorite radio stars, but the sound doesn’t lie.

Proof lies in tracks like “Sunrise” and “Babe, I’m Losing My Mind.” Orn’s trippy guitar intros and solos are copied and pasted directly from the Hendrix school of shred, so much so that I honestly began to question whether these guys used some sort of Viking magic to resurrect the late 60s rock star. By the sound of it, they may have also kidnapped Anthony Kiedis and Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, too. The choruses and interludes, among other bits, all have that consistent shimmery, cool vibe one would find on “Californication” or “Stadium Arcadium.”

There’s a few other stops Story Teller pulls out as well. One is the Southern rock inspired “C’mon Baby”, with its straight bluesy style and honest, albeit cheesy, lyrics about a sassy lady friend. The other is “When I Died,” which has all the musical happenings of Atreyu or Alexisonfire. They manage to pull these off decently though, making the whole album a fairly well-rounded work of hard rock.

While it isn’t perfect, the vocals do tend to detract from the instrumentation and Orn’s guitar solos definitely drag on for unnecessary lengths of time, it’s pretty solid Swedish rock ‘n’ roll music. Riding The Stars is a perfect soundtrack for both the flower child and Viking warrior in all of us.