Album
Henrik Freischlader Band
House in the Woods
Cable Car (label)
04 March 2013 (released)
03 March 2013
When Henrik Freischlader is good he is excellent. Taught and powerful Blues/Rock with some fine guitar solos and no shortage of good songs. Unfortunately he also plays the occasional Blues ballad and that is when you find that his voice just doesn’t quite cut the mustard.
Freischlader has been playing ever since he heard Gary Moore and has a host of top acts who have chosen him to support them – Joe Bonamassa, Gary Moore and BB King, not to mention Johnny Winter so as a player he has real pedigree and he really hits it out of the park as a guitarist.
The title, and opening track, is a furious and aggressive number and he follows that up with ‘Sisters’ which has a soulful groove as well as some fine electric piano – very Sly Stone in feel. ‘Nowhere To Go’ has more of the soulful feel and he growls in a very satisfying way but then he gives you ‘Breaking My Heart Again’ and while the music is fine – slow Blues with a humid and closed in feel – his vocals hit me the same way that Claptons do on ‘Wonderful Tonight’; mawkish and best left to the professionals. That having been said, he does sound wonderful on ‘Won’t You Help Me’
Most of the tracks here would find their way on to my playlist of the month – ‘Take The Blame’ is stunning and very Phillip Sayce and ‘Hear You Talking’ burns with just the right sense of anger and a wicked organ fill – two of the ballads just left me unmoved.
This is definitely worth the cost of admission but for my money he needs to stick to the hot sauce – that is where the juice is.
Freischlader has been playing ever since he heard Gary Moore and has a host of top acts who have chosen him to support them – Joe Bonamassa, Gary Moore and BB King, not to mention Johnny Winter so as a player he has real pedigree and he really hits it out of the park as a guitarist.
The title, and opening track, is a furious and aggressive number and he follows that up with ‘Sisters’ which has a soulful groove as well as some fine electric piano – very Sly Stone in feel. ‘Nowhere To Go’ has more of the soulful feel and he growls in a very satisfying way but then he gives you ‘Breaking My Heart Again’ and while the music is fine – slow Blues with a humid and closed in feel – his vocals hit me the same way that Claptons do on ‘Wonderful Tonight’; mawkish and best left to the professionals. That having been said, he does sound wonderful on ‘Won’t You Help Me’
Most of the tracks here would find their way on to my playlist of the month – ‘Take The Blame’ is stunning and very Phillip Sayce and ‘Hear You Talking’ burns with just the right sense of anger and a wicked organ fill – two of the ballads just left me unmoved.
This is definitely worth the cost of admission but for my money he needs to stick to the hot sauce – that is where the juice is.