Label: Ascendance Records (UK), ASC23013CDSP
Style: Swing, Big Band, Avantgarde, Prog Rock, Heavy Metal
Country: Sweden
Time: 48:16
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 332 Mb
Diablo Swing Orchestra is possibly the most bizarre mix I've ever heard of metal guitars, opera vocals, and odd instrumentation. If you've not heard them, picture swing music, opera, gypsy, tango, jazz, and God only knows what else, mixed up in a blender, and seasoned with madness. THAT's Diablo Swing Orchestra!
This album would be worth listening to if the only track on it were the joyously insane "Bedlam Sticks." Describing this track is difficult, but I'll give it a try: it begins with a punchy, jazzy riff like a video game theme, followed by bizarre theatrical vocals, (male and female). This is followed by some hammering guitar work mixed with Munchkin vocals, reminiscent of the German punker Nina Hagen. The song charges headlong through all kinds of weirdness, has a little bass-powered instrumental break, and we even hear some trombone in there somewhere. The lyrics are something indecipherable about an insane asylum. It's sheer craziness, but a hell of a lot of fun.
But "Bedlam Sticks" is not the only good track on the record. We get the danceable but operatic "New World Windows," the Russian style circus sound of "Vodka Inferno" with its echoes of Fiddler on the Roof or something, and the Glenn Miller on steroids big band mania of "Tap Dancer's Dilemma" (another track that is simply hellaciously fun. The guitar work throughout the album is constantly changing in style, and always chock full of energy. The vocals--my God, the vocals are such a bizarre blend of opera, circus ringmaster, Andrews Sisters jazz, and other weirdness, they have to be heard to be believed.
Another review here called the album "clusterfuckery," and I guess that's fair, too. Definitely, not everyone is going to love this: it's too avant -garde for lots of metal fans, and too heavy for most avant-garde fans. But I have such fun listening to it, I can't keep from smiling as I listen. I guess many metal fans like to be angry or dark, but for those of us that still like a good fun time, DSO brings it in spades. If you're not afraid of something a little different, give this a listen. You may be surprised at how infectious their brand of madness is.
(metal-archives.com/reviews/Diablo_Swing_Orchestra/Sing_Along_Songs_for_the_Damned_%26_Delirious/246533/) Review by caspianrex. April 28th, 2011
01. A Tapdancer's Dilemma (05:12)
02. A Rancid Romance (04:27)
03. Lucy Fears The Morning Star (06:34)
04. Bedlam Sticks (03:29)
05. New World Widows (05:56)
06. Siberian Love Affairs (00:58)
07. Vodka Inferno (04:08)
08. Memoirs Of A Roadkill (03:30)
09. Ricerca Dell Anima (05:34)
10. Stratosphere Serenade (08:25)
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