Grand Island Say No to Sin by: Marcel Plant Tue:18-Dec-07 Label: Haldern Pop Year: 2007 WB rating 60 out of 100

The snake motif that pervades Norwegian band Grand Island’s album Say No to Sin, is a reference to the serpent-handling rituals of fundamentalist religious congregations like the Pentecostal Holy Ghost People of West Virginia – its style alluding to the Appalachia folk music that rings out in them-thar hills. With the inclusion of a Wurlitzer and banjo, along with its obvious heavy rock overtones, Grand Island attempt to mix Hardcore, Prog Rock and Bluegrass. Despite this, Euro Rock is at the band’s core which at its worst fashions a cheesy pop and metal combo, as if they are caught up in the arse-draft of the 2006 winner of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Say No to Sin is not without a hard driving energy with Espen Gustavsen on vocals and guitar, Inge Kristian Brodersen on bass, Jon Iver Helgaker on keys, Pal Gustavsen on Wurlitzer and banjo and Nils Ulset Brodersen on percussion and drums. Together the collective work overtime with hardcore elements and the extraordinary vocal range of vocalist/lyricist Espen Gustavsen.

Sounding like a cross between The Darkness and Frank Zappa, the opening track, ‘Love is (a Dog from Hell)’ is reminiscent of The Mothers of Invention’s orchestration. With the inclusion of a choir on several tracks, and occasionally a trumpet, they would certainly be at home in some revivalist meeting, where religious zealots are purposely bitten by snakes and speak in tongues to prove their religious faith; but only if that gathering could jive to the taste of hardcore European rock. It’s a surrealist image, but one that is reinforced by the band’s Euro mish-mash of pop and rock influence and tracks like ‘Fountain’, which is nothing more than a relentless testosterone-heavy cry of “running down my fountain”.

The middle section contains the best four tracks, the tempo slowing as if the Grand Island Express has started to climb that steep Appalachian mountain as the band begins to showcase their Bluegrass influences. ‘Us Annexed’ is the most accessible and stands out as the album’s signature track. It is far more melodic than its predecessors, but is still somewhat jarring with Gustavsen cramming a great deal of ‘la-la-la’s in the lyrics. Similarly ‘Set your House on Fire’ begins almost sweetly, and then builds with slivers of guitar solos that break from the relentless tempo that dominates the album. The revivalist theme continues with ‘Good Enough’s quasi-puritanical lyrical feel: “soon now all is deliverance/sin along for remembrance.” 

Grand Island seem to be caught midway between snake-bitten, frothing at the mouth experimentation and their desire to be a hard driving rock force – this European style of hardcore succeeds in sound and fury but misses the dynamic dips to make it truly interesting. And while mixing diverse music styles, even those that seem far apart, can throw up some interesting fresh sounds for those of us with jaded rock palates it also can go horribly wrong. Unfortunately Say No to Sin’s diverse genres and themes are appealing on paper, but Grand Island fail to flesh out both the album’s story and texture, missing both the record’s revival-era travelling tent aesthetic and a great opportunity.