The Saigon Sickness Debut Album, "Invocation Of My Demon Brothers," is a Much Anticipated Release From Sweden

I always felt for many years now, Mustasch and Voyager to be the best of the current Swedish music scene of any genre. And as highly as I regard Mustasch I've always felt Voyager was one step above when it came to songwriting. Voyager had none of the breaks of Mustasch, and what seems a rough going. Going from Voyager to Voyagerband, they have eventually evolved with each incarnation. Now, more and more crafted and melodic as The Saigon Sickness, they sound like a much better and completely depressed Foo Fighters with the expertise and ability to create the perfect hook on their three demos and on this debut, Invocation Of My Demon Brothers.

The band has now become even more soulful and stirring, reminding me of the best outputs of Keith Caputo' s solo efforts, which to me is the ultimate compliment as I feel Caputo and Dax Riggs have made some of the most inspired music in recent times. But what sets The Saigon Sickness apart from the singer/songwriter style of Caputo and Riggs is the fact their songs are not built around one personality more akin to H.I.M. Let's say this is the work of a band that is obviously very in tune with each other and it shows in a much stronger way than an obvious singular vision. There is no separation between the music and lyrics or vocals. This is a tight unit all feeding from the same source.

I have heard many of these songs in various incarnations on their ten-plus-year in the making debut. Every time, a new version appears as an almost completely new composition. You could play the different versions of some of these songs as they may have appeared on different recordings, and they could each stand alone as an equally great individual song. If they were to all be played on the same record you would hardly notice that you've heard the same song and only have been moved more by each new example.

It's almost impossible for me to review this as a record as I have so many feelings towards this band. I may have spanned too much for a simple album review but this is a band I hold dearly. So, here is this decade-or-so-old band — with countless demos and recordings you can comparably hold in the same light as Mustasch, H.I.M., and the Foo Fighters — who are just now releasing their debut record in January 2010. Feel like you're missing something? Luckily I haven't, but this must be, for me at least, the most anticipated album of the decade.

Review by SwayingBall

http://www.saigonsickness.blogspot.com/