Move

Metal comes in many flavors - the technical, the fantastical, the extreme, the flamboyant, the experimental, the elaborate, the simplistic yet cranial crushing, and any number of other things. Metal fans, however, tend to be far more stringent and like to catalogue their metal in a slightly more primitive fashion - the true and the false. Consequently, many metalheads will approach blindly and leave in utter disgust at this apparent display of what can only be construed as paradoxical pop-metal. Their loss, I suppose.

Enter Freak Kitchen, brainchild of guitarist Mattias IA Eklundh who, by all standards, should probably have a solid home in a top tier progressive metal band. He seems to have other plans though, as he's too busy stuffing melodies and leads that are rich with metric and harmonic complexity into three minute songs that are safe for mass consumption. I honestly have no idea how they do it - every single song they write is as catchy as anything you might hear on the charts (and will just as easily get stuck in your head for weeks at a time), and yet is filled to the brim with instrumental acrobatics that are subtle enough to not induce any kind of inaccessibility, but are obvious enough to please music snobs around the world. Bassist Christer Ortefors and drummer Bjorn Fryklundh don't necessarily do anything that will make a tech-head look twice, but considering the context in which they are playing, they manage to successfully inject some goofy stuff throughout... including occasional double bass, off-kilter cymbal work, slight rhythmic variations, and plenty of neat bass lines that augment the guitars instead of following them in parallel. The main attraction, of course, is Mattias himself, who makes abundant use of non-standard chord progressions and really comes through with his many leads and solos which somehow manage to fit perfectly with the mood and flow of what's basically the quintessential radio single, yet are also as complex and demanding as anything by the likes of Ron Thal or Ron Jarzombek. He also squeezes some strange noises out of his guitar, for example in "Herion Breakfast" where he sounds like somebody dialing a number on a telephone.

Not only can Mattias play, but he's also a very decent vocalist. Every letter of every word is pronounced clearly enough for you to be able to tell what he's talking about without having to dig through the liner notes - a notable accomplishment considering that he's Swedish and still carries a somewhat obvious accent. Their lyrics consist of humorous, light-hearted social commentary that can sometimes be thought-provoking in a faux-intellectual adolescent sort of way, but generally doesn't take itself seriously at all and serves only to make one giggle.

After listening to bands like Freak Kitchen and fellow partners in crime Bumblefoot, it becomes apparent that many metal acts out there are in more and more of a frenzy to make their music ever more extreme in one direction or another, often forgetting what it's like to simply have fun.

This is a pretty good wakeup call.

Freak Kitchen stick out like a bit of a sore thumb in the Metal Archives because of they specialise in music that wouldn’t sound too out of place on mainstream rock radio alongside all that post-grunge and pop-punk. There’s less of the angst and simple-mindedness associated with those styles of music, and fewer lyrical clichés with the exception of mentioning the corporate world or the media on tracks like Logo and Propaganda Pie and domestic/family issues on Seven Days In June. Where clichés are stumbled upon they are mostly approached with a light-hearted sense of self-irony or sarcasm so I don’t find myself really cringing at any point. More important is the musical aspect here. It’s very catchy, though to the point that I felt ill at other times in the day in the weeks after buying it because the tunes are stuck fast in my head. The thing that puts them above many other ‘catchy’ bands though, is that they’ve chosen chord progressions which haven’t been done to death, and of course Matthias IA Eklundh’s guitar work which shines thanks to not only two-handed tapping and tremolo skills but the use of imaginative guitar tunings which bring songs alive and allow for melodic adventurousness. Normally this is the stuff of hard-going progressive styles but Eklundh appropriates them into 3-minute sing-alongs. It’s just a real shame that this isn’t really marketable to any particular crowd apart from knowledgeable fans of instrumental rock and metal because this would give contemporary metal/radio-rock a good boot up the backside.

Freak Kitchen return with their fifth album, a new drummer and bass player. The first noticeable difference is the inclusion of double kick drums at the beginning of the opening track "Propaganda Pie." They definitely add an extra metal "oooomph" to Freak Kitchen's sound.
Of course Eklundh fills the album with crazy, off-the-wall, impossible to play solos and licks. His playing alone is worth the price of the album. But that is not even the best part, as basically every song on the album is extremely catchy and memorable. These are the type of songs that get stuck in your head for hours.
The lyrics generally deal with real world issues, such as sweatshops ("Logo"), divorce ("Seven Days In June"), and drug addiction ("Herion Breakfast"). The topics are serious, but generally the music is upbeat; they are addressed in a somewhat sarcastic way, although a few songs could be considered 'depressing.' Probably "Seven Days In June" and "Razor Flowers." The latter track is sung by the bassist, and he does a great job.
Move is definitely not 100% TR00 METUHL, but it rocks, and it has the high quality of musicianship that metal fans enjoy, so it should appeal to many a listener.