It’s Woe Time is an album from Woe Gothenburg. You might ask, why does so much music come from Gothenburg? There are so many bands from Sweden’s second largest city. It’s certainly an interesting question to research, but it might not belong in a review of a debut album. Not that it has anything else to do with it, but I assume that Woe has been confused with other bands and then added Gothenburg to the name. It’s not an entirely unusual move among band names that can be considered popular. This is Woe Gothenburg!
Should we place them on the musical map of hard rock and heavy metal, because that’s where Woe Gothenburg belongs? They themselves say that Black Label Society, Rage Against the Machine, and Foo Fighters are good references. I’m not going to protest. It’s clearly a well-played album, and I like the raw energy that comes from the music. Actually, I’m not that fond of the type of singing that Woe Gothenburg uses. And now I’m, of course, in a bit of a pickle and have to explain myself…
Of course it’s not the vocals that are the problem, but the melody line itself, or the way it’s delivered together with the heavy rock music. It’s kind of a bit on the outside and isn’t quite as melodically captivating as I would like. That’s not the case throughout the entire album. And it also becomes more appealing every time I listen to the music. However, I’m a guy who likes guitars and guitar riffs, and on that front I have nothing to complain about. There’s a lot of both. Maybe so much that when I’m concentrating on enjoying It’s Woe Time, I don’t really have time to focus on the vocals either.
That’s how it is, of course. There’s nothing wrong with it; it’s just me who doesn’t have time to discover everything there is. Because it’s undeniably good music, believe me! It’s closer to hard rock than heavy metal, I would say. Not if you compare classic bands with classic records, like Deep Purple and Black Sabbath maybe. But it’s also nothing like NWOBHM. This is something different. Something that will live for a long time. Music that is not yet timeless but that, with the right conditions, could very well become so over time.
This is a translation of a review I did a few years back.
