Do you love classic rock of the 60’s and 70’s? Yeah, so do I. Thus, by default we all love GRAVEYARD’s excellent new record, Hisingen Blues. While GRAVEYARD may be two albums into their career, they sound as if they came out of a time machine from that era, and from that tradition of rock ’n roll. While their overt influences are too numerous and not important to point out, please do not mistake this excellent band for being an unearnest attempt at being “retro.”

Hisingen Blues is just so damn good, and this is readily apparent upon the first listen. Song after song after song and it hits you that they are all winners. A bad riff or weak vocal line cannot be found. And when these guys decide to kick things into overdrive with instrumental song sections, it’s just beautiful. There are bluesy rockers like the title track and passionate, somber numbers like “Uncomfortable Numb.” They can do instrumentals too. “Longing” is a great instrumental that could be the soundtrack to any classic spaghetti Western film.

It should be noted that vocalist/guitarist Joakim Nilsson is not just an excellent guitarist but one hell of a singer. The man can flat out sing. He’s got a natural warmth and charisma that is rare.

These Swedes have the chops, charisma, and the songs. Hisingen Blues is very good but maybe “great” is too premature to say as you can sense that the best is yet to come. In a perfect world, they would be one of the biggest rock bands on earth. Yes, that’s how good they are. (Nuclear Blast Records)