Band:	Djerv
Album:	Djerv
Style:	Alternative metal, Hard rock, Blackened heavy metal
Release date:	June 10, 2011
A review by:	Doc G.

01. Madman
02. The Bowling Pin
03. Headstone
04. Gruesome Twosome
05. Only I Exist
06. Ladder To The Moon
07. Abmuse
08. Blind The Heat
09. Immortal

Well, what do we have here? This is new...yet classic sounding. Straight forward hard rock is not really something that produces anything truly "new" sounding very often. Prog rock can generally do a decent job at cramming something interesting in, but finding a sound that is as fresh sounding as it is simple is an incredibly difficult task.

Basically, take a scoop of punked out heavy metal, give it just the right heaviness and raw aggression. Then add a touch of something melodic and catchy, yet very sleazy...Maybe a just a wee bit of glam metal will do the trick...Yes...Yes...Now let's give the guitars a razor-sharp edge, perhaps some guitar tones that would sound fitting in a black metal album. Top things off with a singer who sounds not totally unlike Swedish pop star Robyn...If Robyn started living on a Lemmy Kilmister diet. It all mixes surprisingly well. It's not too eclectic, this doesn't sound like an amalgamation sound by any means, it just sounds like a gritty heavy metal band who happen to have elements that belong in different areas of the map.

Here's where we usually go over the downsides. It's really hard to think of any. I mean, it's not a perfect album, it's not going to change the face of music or anything, but it's just so direct. There's no pretensions about what Djerv are trying to do here, and they execute it perfectly. It's a melodic heavy metal album with a heavy-handed rough side. No more, no less.

The term "black n roll" seems to be applied to a lot of black metal bands who went melodic. It seems more appropriate to apply it to a band like Djerv; a true rock n roll band with a distinct taste for black metal guitar tones. Just wonderful.