BACKWOOD SPIRIT-Backwood Spirit

Pride&Joy Music

Swedish outfit Backwood Spirit exists of seasoned musicians that have been around for many years. Most famous member is without any doubt singer Goran Edman who has sung for bands like Madison, Yngwie Malmsteen, Brazen Abbot, John Norum and many others. He is together with guitarist Kent Engstrom the person who has written the lyrics while Engstrom has written all music. Further participants are drummer Joje Lindskoog (who started this band with Engstrom some 3 years ago), bassist Niclas Bosson and keyboardist Tobias Aslund. It is always nice to listen to the warm and versatile voice of Edman, who can almost sing any genre required. Backwood Spirit is not your everyday rock band. The music is clearly influenced by seventies and eighties act like Free and also The Black Crowes. Most of the songs are reasonably long (most of them between 5 and 7 minutes), are really well executed but overall I miss a bit of explosiveness in the music. It is all a bit too laid back for my taste. The spark just does not ignite, the music just moves along. You listen to it, recognize the quality of the musicians involved but you miss a bit of bite. Engstrom has some beautiful riffs on offer, but only once you hear him go wild (,,Ain’t Got Love’’) adding a bit of pepper and salt to the music. That should and could have happened more I reckon. It is a bit old fashioned type of rock as well, although there is nothing wrong with that. It is mainly because of Edman’s glorious vocals that this record scores the necessary points with me but all in all I had expected a bit more. For people that like retro rock I suggest to check out some tracks on You Tube to see if this record fits you.