Album Type:
Full Length
Date
Released: 20/02/2015
Label:
High Roller Records
‘Paranoia’ CD//LP// track listing:
01. Devil
and The Doctor
02. Gone
Again
03. Stop
Fooling Around
04. Too
Young Die
05. Six
Silver Suns
06. I Was
the Son of God
07.
Something Nasty
08. Where is
Home
09. Never
Ending No
10. The
Mover
Bio:
In a world
of collaborations and compromises, AKTOR achieves these ends by sustaining a
respectful silence between its creative contributors: avant-garde serialists
Jussi Lehtisalo and Tomi Leppänen in Pori, Finland, and across the Atlantic in
Chicago, heavy metal singer/songwriter Professor Black.
All in all,
one could say that AKTOR plays Top 40 Heavy Metal with a delicious psychedelic
flair that may one day have some fans in common with Sandy Perlman, Alan Davey,
and/or Roky Erickson. Truthfully, AKTOR’s origins are uncertain and its
intentions unspecified, and its music and process are accordingly unconceptual
and a perhaps bit tense. Yet the outcome has much in common with the
premeditated, synthetic pop music that has dominated airwaves since the 1980s.
The lyrical narrative is similarly accessible on the surface, despite its
protagonist(s) speaking from altered and/or incomplete states of being.
Aktor
is:
Professor
Black | Vocals, Bass
Tommi
Leppänen | Drums
Jussi
Lehtisalo | Guitars
Review:
This is getting ridiculous. 2014 saw two full
length albums from Chris Black: the High Spirits solo project back in April and
Dawnbringer’s newest album ‘Night of the Hammer’ in October, which I reviewed here. When I had a chance to ask him some questions following up on my review,
he hinted that there was more to come sooner rather than later; and he wasn’t
kidding. Black, along with Finnish collaborators Jussi Lehtisalo (drums) and
Tommi Leppänen (guitars) have come up with what will be Black’s third full
length within a twelve month span. At least in this case, the bulk of the song
writing has been carried by Lehtisalo and Leppänen, with Black focusing more on
vocal melodies and bass contributions.
Aktor, in only the most general terms, has more
in common with High Spirits’ ‘You Are Here’ than ‘Night of the Hammer’ in that
it’s generally more upbeat and high-energy, but there’s a lot more going on,
and that’s the brilliance of ‘Paranoia’: you could point to dozens of different
musical points of reference as the album wears on and they all flow together
beautifully. You could cite influences as diverse as Hawkwind, MC5, Devo,
Mystic Knights of Oingo Boingo circa ‘Forbidden Zone’, Danzig, Saxon and plenty
more from there. Depending on where you’re at in the album you’d be dead on. A
band with such diversity while still remaining cohesive and instantly
recognizable is sadly harder and harder to come by, but Aktor meets that bar
with ease.
A big chunk of the credit for what makes this
album so irresistible is the ingeniously simple synth leads. They act as a kind
of non-lingual backup singer, both playing into and dancing around Black’s
vocal melodies, rarely taking a back seat to provide blanket atmosphere, which
is so often the case in other bands.
It’s particularly effective in the album’s second half, where songs like
“I Was the Son of God”, “Where is Home”, “Never-Ending No”, and “The Mover” all
rely on synth accents to drive those songs over the line from really good to
fantastic. It also helps give Aktor a unique sonic identity; its equal parts
old sci-fi movie soundtracks and classic hard rock and heavy metal nostalgia.
“The Mover” in particular shows that even when the ‘Paranoia’ gets a bit moody;
the results are no less addictive.
Even songs without a prominent synth presence
are usually top quality. “Six Silver Suns” is a real headbanger; smashing
Saxon, Danzig and KISS into one and other with some floating, melodic lead
guitar work to really put it over the top. “Something Nasty”, is a high-energy
rager from the first note, with an immaculate chorus, like something out of The
Hellacopters’ early 2000s material; complete with some wrist-ruining tamborine
driving the percussion end of things.
It should go without saying, but I love this
album. It’s hard to say for certain at this point, but of the three Chris Black
projects that have released albums in the last year, Aktor’s ‘Paranoia’ is
likely my favorite of the bunch, and that’s no faint praise. It’s also worth
emphasizing that this album sets the bar very high for the rest of the albums
coming out later this year. You’d do well to give this a listen regardless of
your musical proclivities.
Words by:
Daniel Jackson
You can pick up a CD/LP copy here.
For
more information:
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