With the new album "Road Back To Ruin" Pristine's musical diversity has returned. After the somewhat too cool album "Ninja" (2017), recorded in just one day, the Norwegian retroro rockers continue here mainly as we had learned to appreciate them on "Reboot" (2016): with that warm-hearted, sweaty blues-soaked hard rock that makes Heidi Solheim and her boys one of the model bands of the genre.
There is something absurd about it when I arrange to meet Heidi Solheim for a "serious" interview for 30 minutes in the business room of a hotel in Tromsø, Pristine's hometown in the far north of Norway. What do you ask someone with whom you have spent two days into the late night just for questions that have not already been answered at the counter or dining table? Moreover, the room is also oversized: For both of us there are almost 30 chairs at an extra long table.
eclipsed: We should get as far apart as we can.
The Gibson Club is located in the middle of the Zeil, the main shopping mile in downtown Frankfurt. Can rock'n'roll really bloom there in blues rock style? As part of the multi-day "Women Of The World" festival, Sweden's Blues Pills with their Norwegian support Pristine have announced themselves there. In the afternoon we enter the club through the back door. The Blues Pills are still on stage at the soundcheck.
Not yet in stage outfit, but with T-shirt, jeans shorts and flip-flops Elin Larsson is almost as energetic as later in front of an audience. On the other hand, a little later Heidi Solheim is already strolling into the club in showdress. Before the red-haired vocalist goes to the interview with eclipsed, Elin welcomes her warmly. The two talk excitedly in Swedish, which most Norwegians can understand and speak well.
The retro-rock wave has also reached tranquil Tromsø in northern Norway: at the latest since January 2012, when Pristine released her debut album "Detoxing", followed by "No Regret" in 2013. The band around singer Heidi Solheim is completely dedicated to the early 70s sound - and especially to blues rock. The accolade "Blues Rock at its best" by the American "Blues Rock Review" proves how skilfully Pristine works.
Now we have the third album "Reboot". "It took us a step from the blues to rock. We love to give concerts and have recorded 'Reboot' live in the studio. That's how we try to capture the energy, and that's exactly where this 70s feeling comes from," explains Heidi Solheim, who grew up with the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and the Eagles in her childhood. "I fell in love with all the wonderful harmonies and melodies. When I heard Led Zeppelin, it had happened to me. At the age of nine I formed a cover band."
Norway is not exactly known for blues rock. All the more surprising is the third album of the band Pristine from Tromsø, the first to be released outside Norway. Memories of Jimi Hendrix, Cream and especially the Yardbirds with Jimmy Page come up here.
WITCHCRAFT - The Outcast (edit) (4:57)
Album: Nucleus (2016)
Label/Distribution: Nuclear Blast/Warner www.nuclearblast.de
The times when you could imprint Witchcraft stamps like Doom or Stoner are over from "Nucleus". The Swedes have created an album that is as stylistically diverse as it is in love with detail. This is retro and modern at the same time. Last month's album is a record to fall in love with!
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eclipsed is a music magazine based in Aschaffenburg and has been on the German market since 2000. It is aimed at friends of sophisticated rock music who want to go on a new acoustic voyage of discovery month after month.
eclipsed deals in detail with the rock greats of the 60s and 70s in the areas of art rock, prog, psychedelic, blues, classic, hard rock and much more as well as with the current scene in these areas.
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