Inside Charmer
15-09-2004, 23:27
Killer swedish heavy blues rock group Abramis Brama (www.abramisbrama.com (http://www.abramisbrama.com)) is almost one step before releasing their much awaited third studio album , “Rubicon”. Everything is recorded, produced and mixed. The album will probably come out in a digipack form with extraordinary layout and will see the light of day within this fall. Again on Sweden Rock Records!
The band released “Nothing Changes” earlier this year which is a compilation of songs recorded in their previous two records, which were played again and had new lyrics in English. This was something their label wanted very badly but didn’t pave the way for a new career in English, thus Abramis Brama still sing in their mother tongue, which is perfectly fine with me.
Fredrick Jansson, the drum skinner of Abramis Brama, came to Greece for short holidays. He went to Paros, Antiparos and Naxos and then returned to Athens for a couple of days. Jansson had nicely informed me about his visit so we rang each other and met on Monday, September,13th. He was with his girlfriend Camilla Sandberg (s.s: the official photo lady of the band), who was seven months pregnant to their second child, still very beautiful and charming. Fredrick is a tall, big guy with hippie looks (bell bottom trousers, long hair, colourfull shirt) and a cool sense of humour. We met outside their hotel and exchanged our small presents (s.s:hope you like it Dennis!), then walked around a bit before settling down to a rock café at Sina Street (no names, no ads, but I think you all know what it was). Bombarded with old Rolling Stones tracks, we chatted and commented on many things and by that time we also had been joined by ex Stockholm refugee and acid companero, Mike, who kept our spirits high with his huge voice and smart wits. He was helpful by entertaining Camilla while I was interrogating Fredrick about the Swedish scene and fishing discreetly for informations…I was so sad to hear that cool acidheads Half Man have split, but very delighted that their phenomenal singer Janne Bengtsson is a collector of old obscurities and appreciates Socrates a lot. We decided to trade Socrates cds with November ones, maybe Saga too. Luckily enough the place we were sitting in was empty so we didn’t annoy anybody with our roars and silly jokes, and at the same time weren’t distrurbed by peeky greeks. We had our beers, took a few pictures, you will probably be able to laugh at @ www.abramisbrama.com (http://www.abramisbrama.com) he he!... and then left for Plaka.
Camilla wanted to buy traditional greek gifts for Swedish friends and we had jolly good time cracking jokes and watching tourists flirt by. It’s strange that you come across on items from all over the world at the stores of Pandrosou but traditional greek ones!Camilla decided for a nice bag from Nepal… By the way, I learned how to pronounce “Norrsken” (s.s: the swedish complex sk is pronounced like a fat greek χ) and was told that it means “northern light”…YEAH! I had one more good reason to teach myself some svensk It was the time when Jansson told as some astonishing news about Grand Magus and their likes. Don’t be taken aback if the next record of theirs has Immortal elements. As we gradually got hungry, we decided to go for it in a nearby taverna. It was ok all in all. Fred and Camilla are veggies, however I couldn’t resist my portion of gyros. Mike was on a spiritual diet, so he kept going on about taxation in Greece and other anarchistic topics. Bless you!
We stood up, Mike wanted to leave due to an examination he had to stay in the next day, so we greeted each other, Mike spelling out his curse-like blessings and we walked to the hotel. Camilla excused herself and went to sleep while me and Jansson indulged in a next door dvd shop specializing in splatter/horror b-movies of all decades. It seemed that me and Jansson had a lot in common both in tastes of music and movies, although I do not share his passion for old school punk/hardcore. After all we are the same age. Then it was interview time so we wound up sitting on a park bench…eyeing little girls with bad intent…sorry, wrong line, so we sat on a bench of the Exarchia square, drank some more beers and went for it. Killer experience as we were surrounded by junkies, weirdos, drunk fellas and the merely nightcrawlers. Tack, man!
According to awesome drummer Jansson, the new album shall be much earthier, darker, heavier and moodier than the other records with a certain doom feeling in it, all covered up with tons of blues of course. There is a promo single with three tracks, intended to be an appetizer for the new release, called “Saljer din Sjal”. You can find the self titled song in it, which is also featured in the “Rubicon” lp, “Gravesten” which is taken from the sessions to this record, but doesn’t appear on “Rubicon” and a new version of “Mama Talar”, a track from their debut album. The first song is really a new approach to the sound, somehow gloomier and sunless with extraordinary interplay and heavy guitar solos. “Gravesten” is also heavy enough and full of some cool harmonica fills whereas “Mama Talar”, my favorite AB song, defines the term catchy after Kyuss heavy rock! The single really makes you want to listen to the full record as soon as possible and has a splendid artwork.
There are some guests in “Rubicon” that might interest some of you, to say the least. Mats “Fox” Heden off Grand “javla” Magus is contributing cello and Lord “Chritte” Chritus/Count Raven, Saint Vitus, Terra Firma is lead singing on another! If you do some research on Abramis you will find out that they are one of the leading bands of the Stockholm scene, although the rarely play there he he! They are acquainted with most of the heavy rock/doom bands and befriend with some of them too, so don’t be surprised about these guest appearances, especially by doom legend Lord Chritus!
Abramis Brama is actually one of the most well-hidden gems you could come across in the international underground. Maybe their Swedish singing has a lot to do with this, maybe they weren’t really lucky with picking up a good label. Their first two records are supposedly out of print and sold out. Sweden Rock claims they cut 1500 pieces of each and they are all sold, having sent out 500 of them as promos (no fucking away, if you ask me). Maybe that’s true! I wish it’s not, ‘cause you really need to listen to this band from the north! On the other hand, “Nothing Changes” has sold the best up to now, approaching numbers of 3000 copies…grab yours as soon as you can. The band is thinking of re-releasing their first material, let’s just wait.
I know it will be hard as hell to find a copy of “Rubicon” when it’s finally out, but give it a try, it’ s darn worth it, I can tell you as much.
There will be more when I listen to it.
The band released “Nothing Changes” earlier this year which is a compilation of songs recorded in their previous two records, which were played again and had new lyrics in English. This was something their label wanted very badly but didn’t pave the way for a new career in English, thus Abramis Brama still sing in their mother tongue, which is perfectly fine with me.
Fredrick Jansson, the drum skinner of Abramis Brama, came to Greece for short holidays. He went to Paros, Antiparos and Naxos and then returned to Athens for a couple of days. Jansson had nicely informed me about his visit so we rang each other and met on Monday, September,13th. He was with his girlfriend Camilla Sandberg (s.s: the official photo lady of the band), who was seven months pregnant to their second child, still very beautiful and charming. Fredrick is a tall, big guy with hippie looks (bell bottom trousers, long hair, colourfull shirt) and a cool sense of humour. We met outside their hotel and exchanged our small presents (s.s:hope you like it Dennis!), then walked around a bit before settling down to a rock café at Sina Street (no names, no ads, but I think you all know what it was). Bombarded with old Rolling Stones tracks, we chatted and commented on many things and by that time we also had been joined by ex Stockholm refugee and acid companero, Mike, who kept our spirits high with his huge voice and smart wits. He was helpful by entertaining Camilla while I was interrogating Fredrick about the Swedish scene and fishing discreetly for informations…I was so sad to hear that cool acidheads Half Man have split, but very delighted that their phenomenal singer Janne Bengtsson is a collector of old obscurities and appreciates Socrates a lot. We decided to trade Socrates cds with November ones, maybe Saga too. Luckily enough the place we were sitting in was empty so we didn’t annoy anybody with our roars and silly jokes, and at the same time weren’t distrurbed by peeky greeks. We had our beers, took a few pictures, you will probably be able to laugh at @ www.abramisbrama.com (http://www.abramisbrama.com) he he!... and then left for Plaka.
Camilla wanted to buy traditional greek gifts for Swedish friends and we had jolly good time cracking jokes and watching tourists flirt by. It’s strange that you come across on items from all over the world at the stores of Pandrosou but traditional greek ones!Camilla decided for a nice bag from Nepal… By the way, I learned how to pronounce “Norrsken” (s.s: the swedish complex sk is pronounced like a fat greek χ) and was told that it means “northern light”…YEAH! I had one more good reason to teach myself some svensk It was the time when Jansson told as some astonishing news about Grand Magus and their likes. Don’t be taken aback if the next record of theirs has Immortal elements. As we gradually got hungry, we decided to go for it in a nearby taverna. It was ok all in all. Fred and Camilla are veggies, however I couldn’t resist my portion of gyros. Mike was on a spiritual diet, so he kept going on about taxation in Greece and other anarchistic topics. Bless you!
We stood up, Mike wanted to leave due to an examination he had to stay in the next day, so we greeted each other, Mike spelling out his curse-like blessings and we walked to the hotel. Camilla excused herself and went to sleep while me and Jansson indulged in a next door dvd shop specializing in splatter/horror b-movies of all decades. It seemed that me and Jansson had a lot in common both in tastes of music and movies, although I do not share his passion for old school punk/hardcore. After all we are the same age. Then it was interview time so we wound up sitting on a park bench…eyeing little girls with bad intent…sorry, wrong line, so we sat on a bench of the Exarchia square, drank some more beers and went for it. Killer experience as we were surrounded by junkies, weirdos, drunk fellas and the merely nightcrawlers. Tack, man!
According to awesome drummer Jansson, the new album shall be much earthier, darker, heavier and moodier than the other records with a certain doom feeling in it, all covered up with tons of blues of course. There is a promo single with three tracks, intended to be an appetizer for the new release, called “Saljer din Sjal”. You can find the self titled song in it, which is also featured in the “Rubicon” lp, “Gravesten” which is taken from the sessions to this record, but doesn’t appear on “Rubicon” and a new version of “Mama Talar”, a track from their debut album. The first song is really a new approach to the sound, somehow gloomier and sunless with extraordinary interplay and heavy guitar solos. “Gravesten” is also heavy enough and full of some cool harmonica fills whereas “Mama Talar”, my favorite AB song, defines the term catchy after Kyuss heavy rock! The single really makes you want to listen to the full record as soon as possible and has a splendid artwork.
There are some guests in “Rubicon” that might interest some of you, to say the least. Mats “Fox” Heden off Grand “javla” Magus is contributing cello and Lord “Chritte” Chritus/Count Raven, Saint Vitus, Terra Firma is lead singing on another! If you do some research on Abramis you will find out that they are one of the leading bands of the Stockholm scene, although the rarely play there he he! They are acquainted with most of the heavy rock/doom bands and befriend with some of them too, so don’t be surprised about these guest appearances, especially by doom legend Lord Chritus!
Abramis Brama is actually one of the most well-hidden gems you could come across in the international underground. Maybe their Swedish singing has a lot to do with this, maybe they weren’t really lucky with picking up a good label. Their first two records are supposedly out of print and sold out. Sweden Rock claims they cut 1500 pieces of each and they are all sold, having sent out 500 of them as promos (no fucking away, if you ask me). Maybe that’s true! I wish it’s not, ‘cause you really need to listen to this band from the north! On the other hand, “Nothing Changes” has sold the best up to now, approaching numbers of 3000 copies…grab yours as soon as you can. The band is thinking of re-releasing their first material, let’s just wait.
I know it will be hard as hell to find a copy of “Rubicon” when it’s finally out, but give it a try, it’ s darn worth it, I can tell you as much.
There will be more when I listen to it.