VON BENZO – Von Benzo

Back in the 90s when America was nearly exploding with new and modernized Hard Rock acts; two bands were able to capture the eye for more than just a brief look. Those bands were the local 3 Doors Down and the Canadian Nickelback. The latter was more acquainted in the worldwide mainstream audience after 2001. The reference to these bands is because this review focuses on a Swedish version of the mixture between the two American ones, a mixture that created Von Benzo from Helsingborg.

Von Benzo, as a new band that only started out in 2005, gives a better idea about what is the true nature of modern Hard Rock/Rock N’ Roll and why they are presented as the unsurpassed “replacements” for the two American bands, which sadly, lost their means after the beginnings of their careers and sunk even deeper into the desolate and misshapen mainstream ugliness of the world of MTV.

From this end, Von Benzo is not just a wonderful and fresh act of true Hard Rockin’ scenery, they are the answer and, possibly, a view to a dazzling future for things to come from other acts in Sweden and maybe, if someone there would pay attention already, from the US and the rest of the world.

Besides being loyal to one of their hits, “MTV Killed Rock N’ Roll”, Von Benzo is serious, they are not one of those two-timed EMO acts who came to show how ugly and dead they look like and that all they want is to cut their own wrists at the end of the day. These dudes, even at a younger age, present a young music, yet with a deeper essence within and that is the reason they retained their maturity at a rather early stage. Everyone knows that many of the younger acts like to have fun on the debut. On Von Benzo, fun exists, yet with a fair proportion of not being too stupid, or to the opposite, not too doomy and suicidal as on EMO tunes.

With influences that range from Blues, Rock N’ Roll, Hard Rock from the US and some elements from their own local Glam Metal and Hard Rock scene, the new Von Benzo came up to be a tough, dirty and sometimes a raw hit machine. If in the past we had “Leader Of Men” by Nickelback and “Kryptonite” by 3 Doors Down, today we have “And The Dead Said No”, “Poison”, “Let Myself Go”, “MTV Killed Rock N’ Roll” and all the rest from Von Benzo’s new bag of tricks.

Overall, this album is the Swedish gift to the American people with a hidden purpose to teach the American scene how to refine their Hard Rock so that the call made by Von Benzo will be a tide turner in a way. Unfortunately, the majority of the American crowd will have to have more “proof” in order to restart their Hard Rock scene, put a major delete on MTV (because as Von Benzo said, that station, especially in the mid 90s slowly put the poison into Rock N’ Roll) and many other procedures that will take eras to accomplish. Nevertheless, for now you will have the enjoyment of experiencing a hell of a Hard Rock fest with almost every song as a potential hit without thinking of the American Hard Rock.

Von Benzo is a flowing ride along between hard and spongy, pain and bits of joy, life and death, you name it, it’s all there. All wrapped up by a massive production that is well known in the Swedish scene under the insignia of a band that won awards on their short and current career. So there is some good for you to expect.

Other hits: “Die Beautiful”, “Bad Father, Bad Son” and the rest is up for you to decide.