TRENDKILLER – Interesting View Of Strange Things

Most bands start out as garage bands, everyone knows that, but it’s not often you get to review one of the “garage” bands from your own neighborhood. A fun fact is that this band actually rehearsed in the basement of one of the main characters from the Norwegian version of kids program Sesame Street. Drummer Nico Christiansen’s mother plays Leonora on the show, and she has also worked as a song teacher for at least one of the singers in Trendkiller.

Trendkiller started playing back in 1993, but things didn’t really turn serious until they got in a new vocalist in 2002. Old singer Geir Teigland got married, and when the Mrs. put her foot down on his musical career, Freddy Vain replaced Teigland at the mic stand. Since then, the band have finally been taking their music more seriously, playing gigs both at Heavy Metal venues and at different Biker events around and in the Oslo district. Now they want to take on the world with their debut album Interesting View of Strange Things.

The band themselves do not want to be locked in a specific genre, and this shows in their album. Even if their songs bare a certain Rock/Metal style, Trendkiller have managed to put their own mark on the music. The album bares everything from the calm and gentle ballads to the brutal Metal riffs.

Interesting View of Strange Things has included a cover version of Black Sabbaths “Children of the Grave” in addition to their own eleven songs. They start off with the catchy “Different Air.” Freddy Vain mixes his voice from being normal to rough, but most of the time he sings pretty clearly, so he’ll have to work on that Jack Daniels drinking if he wants to sound Lemmy-like. Bass player Knut Carlsson has a groovy and “in your face” sound all through the album, and his bass playing goes together really well with Vain’s voice.

Not only does the album vary musically, but they have also added different try outs of each song; female backing by Nico’s sister Kathinka, different kinds of distorted vocals like f.i. sounding like a TV-news anchor.

The two best songs on the album are the ballad “Peaceaker” with only acoustic guitars and Vain singing to his girlfriend. Also, “The Things You Do,” which has a slight Metallica vs. Audrey Horne sound to it. It’s probably the song with the biggest hit potential.

Whether or not these guys are going to make lots of money on this album is doubtful, but as long as they enjoy playing around the South of Norway and drinking their Jack Daniels in Nico’s basement, you’d have to say mission accomplished!