Pure Brilliance (Millencolin in general)

Name: coolboy182

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Product:	Millencolin in general
Date:	05.05.03 (136 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: many songs, amazing live, talented musicians

Disadvantages: Swedish- may not come to the UK as much as required

In general, Millencolin are just... incredible! They are a Swedish punk-rock band, sounding similar to bands like Bad Religion, Pennywise etc. but with a different aspect on their music. The Swedish accent from the singer and bass player, Nikola Sarcevic gives a great effect on the music and the tremendus guitarists and backing vocalists, Eric Ohlsson and Mathias Farm is amazing aswell as they thrive off one another, giving the perfect effect. The very talented drummer, Frederik Larzon completes the band, making them unstoppable!

The lyrics are now in English, unlike back in October '92 in Örebro Sweden when the band started. Millencolin was then just Erik, Mathias and Nikola who played in other punk bands then aswell as Millencolin and sung in Swedish. The band started skating around '87 so were into punk bands like Operation Ivy, Mc Rad, Descendents and Odd Man Out from skatevideos, making them decide to start a skaterock band of their own. The name was taken from a skate trick called 'Melancholy' (or sad air), but the spelling was changed slightly so it sounded more like a band name which is cool.

Back in early '93, a 10 song demotape named 'Goofy' was recorded and their first show was played then Larzon joined the band. He played in a band called Kung Pung before and when he joined, Mathias who was the drummer previously for Millencolin played guitar instead as the band needed two guitarists live and he was more of a guitarist than drummer. All 3 bands the members of Millencolin were in previously all released a 7 inch which they payed for themselves but then two of them, Seigmenn and Kung Pung both broke up in early '93.

The third, Charles Hårfager, got a record label, signing to Kamel Records who rereleased their 7 inch again. One more single was released with these before Erik quit, but the band continued as the other guys in the band played together, recording two CD's in their life time before
splitting up.

Their geniousness is proved in the form of many incredible full length albums on Burning Heart Records, including thier latest release, 2002's Home From Home, which features the never tiring singles, Man Or Mouse, Battery Check and Kemp. It is overall an incredible piece of work, but is it any match for the supurb previous album, Pennybridge Pioneers? This is one of my favourite CD's in my collection and features singles such as Penguins and Polarbears and Fox. The fantastic end song, The Ballad, blew me away with it's sheer brilliance: the lyrics are really touching and meaningful and it is a cool acoustic song.

The Melancholy Collection is a compilation of the first two EP's - Use Your Nose and Skauch, the B-sides from the singles and songs recorded just for compilations. It was released because the singles are hard or unavailable to purchase in the UK and other parts of Europe, so fans can hear their true brilliance to the full now. Other albums are Life On A Plate which was made in August '95 by both Burning Heart and Unisound Studios as they moved to Örebro. This featured 14 songs including 'Bullion', 'The Story Of My Life' and 'Friends Til' The End'.

Next was 'Tiny Tunes', a compilation of old songs. Sadly, Burning Heart got sued by Warner Bros. due to the use of the front cover design and the title being similar to their work so had to be changed straight away. Erik decided to put the picture on the back onto the front instead, changing the colors. The title was also changed to 'Same old tunes'. The amount Burning Heart Records had to pay is unknown.

'For Monkeys' is their third album and was released in the April of '97. A single was released at the end of March, containing 'Lozin' Must' from this and an unreleased song and a cover. This album was one of the last recordings made in Unisound Studios due to Dan Swanö r
etiring and selling most of the studio to Mathias and companion Miezsko who had already got a studio where 'Vixen', one of the unreleased tracks on the single was recorded. Their studio was called the Punk Palace but later changed to Sound Lab Studios.

That not enough for you? Well, this band are also amazing live, playing a range of their music from most of their CD's and let the crowd participate at times. They talk a bit to get the crowd interested and into the show but not too much where it gets boring and tour in many countries including the UK, South America, Japan, Australia and many more. As they are a famous band now and have been around for a while, they have gained some really keen fans who follow them, and get other popular or upcoming bands as support. It is also possible to learn their material if you play and instrument on various sites, thought it may be hard (they're talented lads).

They also have a video which is very rare if not unavailable now called "millencolin & the Hi-8 Adventures", made by Erik home recorded and features 23 songs by the band, live material, videos, tour filming and skateboarding etc. It took them six months to edit and put the video together and Erik will soon release is DVD so fans can get hold of it which will be amazing.

Thank you for taking your time to read my review and i hope you will consider listening to this band's music. If you like them, contact me if you want or just... yea they rule!

PS. If you do like this band, you may also like All American Rejects, Brand New, Pennywise, Bad Religion, NOFX, Rancid and The Movielife.

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