GEFF – Land Of The Free

Land Of The Free is GEFF’s debut album and features Melodic Metal. The band consists of well known names in Swedish Heavy Rock and Heavy Metal. On vocals we find Göran Edman, best known for his participation on two of Yngwie Malmsteen’s records, Eclipse and Fire And Ice. His first taste of international fame came with the release of Europe guitarist John Norum’s debut solo album in 1987. Behind the drums are Anders Johansson, known from Hammerfall and being a member of Yngwie’s band during the 80s. Mats Olausson plays the keyboards and is best known for playing with Yngwie on many records throughout the 90s. On bass we find Per Stadin who is known from the band Silver Mountain.

The mastermind behind GEFF is guitarist and songwriter Ralf Jedestedt. He played a couple of songs for Per and asked him if he was willing to record the album in his studio and do the bass parts as well. Then they gathered the rest of the group, all of them old friends. Göran helped Ralf complete the songs and all arrangements were done by the band.

During the recording of this album, Jens Johansson, the brother of Anders, hung around the studio. He is also an old member of Yngwie’s band, playing keyboards through the 80s era. He was asked to do a guest appearance on the album and played a solo on one of the tracks.

“Xtacy”, the opener, is a fast song taking you back to the 80s. The production can actually remind you a bit of a Van Halen record from the late 80s. It’s great to hear Göran Edman again. He’s a fantastic singer with a characteristic voice. Some of the songs could have been taken from the Eclipse session by Yngwie Malmsteen.

The title track is the fourth song to head out from this album. It sounds like it could have come from Yngwie’s album Eclipse, released in 1990 featuring both Göran and Mats. It is pretty fast and very riff based. There’s a lot of harmonic minor, which is Yngwie’s favorite scale. The keyboard solo sounds a lot like Jens Johansson. Is this the solo he did? It is definitely the best song on the album.

“Fools Paradise” is another song, mid-tempo and with a lot of great riffs and vocal harmonies. Apart from the mentioned songs there really is no other stand out songs, just fill-ins actually that does not maintain you’re listening pleasure. Many songs have potential, “Living Generation” for example. The band should just work a little harder on the song material for the next release, because the problem with Land Of The Free is that there’s too many similar songs. It’s not a must-purchase record, unfortunately.