Audrey Horne – Waiting for the Night

I have a weakness … and it’s called Audrey horne, they come from Norway and they practice a very personal hard rock with guitars to or Thin Lizzy and with a strength and hook that are above their peers. Many of its members come from the scene black metal Norwegian and if you have ever been able to see them live you already know that they are at a completely higher level. While established bands that are capable of gathering large arenas need stage tricks and various knick-knacks, they, with their music, are enough to keep the room open-mouthed. It was absolutely splendid what was achieved in Barcelona being the opening act for Backyard Babies… And they didn’t even come to the concert time! In this live album there are 16 direct songs with a very participative audience and a band that makes it very clear that they are in a sublime moment.

They are not exactly newbies, they are already 18 years of career and six spectacular albums, but, incomprehensibly, they remain as the best kept secret of the rocker Norway. To the live album we must add a blue ray with 13 live songs recorded between 2014 and 2018 and a succulent and varied assortment of extras, which we could not see, but it promises the thing.

I had to record a live show to capture this brutal moment of form, so they start with one of the most accurate shots they have ever recorded: “We Want War”. Memorable composition with a killing chorus. You hear people roar and enjoy themselves as the group adorns themselves with a stop of atmospheric rest. The royal chorus and double guitar attack knock you out instantly. “Audrerevolution” is as brief as it is intense, well endowed with another one of those choruses that stay with you in gray matter, and with the playful bass of the bearded man Espen Lien. “Youngblood” is another example of the insulting level they achieve when it comes to composing. That great pleasure of adorning the riffs and solos with the twin guitars elevates his compositions to the highest. But the group’s great asset is the golden throat of Toschie, a guy who, without having a strong or privileged voice, manages to get the best out of it every time he sings.

The arsenal of brilliant compositions is inexhaustible and the sample button is “Blackout”. Ice dale (Enslaved) and Thomas Tofthagen they look like Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson in the old days It was time to start vindicating the legacy of the Lizzy. Another of his definitive singles is “Pretty Little Sunshine” from the phenomenal album Youngblood. We travel back in time to the festive “Out of the City” and with those guitars closely following the vocalist’s line. The quiet “Sail Away” has been released along with a video with scenes behind the scenes of the group. They return to the recent Blackout with the hymn “Midnight Man”, all under the precise baton of Kjetil Greve after the patches. The drummer himself takes advantage of the groove “Light Your Way” to mark a mini solo and make us enjoy another more current theme.

But one of the public’s favorites is the brilliant “California” with those guitar games and that intense and beautiful vocal line. “Weightless” pulls solemnity. A curious theme because it is of its first long duration and you can see how the Bergen combo has evolved over the years. Another of the first ones is “Blaze of Ashes” with a keyboard and with that crescendo so catchy and hymnical. The truth is that much has changed the group, you just have to listen to something as glorious as “Waiting for the Night”. How many bands would kill for having signed a song of this caliber … It starts with people singing the chorus and with such a chord progression glam, very The Sweet. The quality of the last songs is absolute and “Redemption Blues” is a melodic whiplash that includes canons in guitar melodies, and then, the apotheosis with “Straight to Your Grave”, another of its compositional tops. And is that if I have to keep an album that would be Youngblood…

Great live show. It was time to take it out because I repeat, the direct of Audrey horne they are well above 99% of current bands. They are real monsters from the live show and their studio material still seems amazing to me. It is incomprehensible why they remain in a second or third line when they should sweep through where they pass. If you know someone who has seen them, you can ask them and their opinion will not differ from mine. If they attach a DVD I think its acquisition is essential. It is as if all the postulates of Thin LizzyBut boy, there is much, much more to these Norwegians. I never usually put such high notes, but in this case I am forced to do so.

Jordi Tàrrega

Record, film and book collector. Open minded towards music and all its forms, but with a special predilection for all branches of rock. I also enjoy the mere fact of writing.