JORN – Bring Heavy Rock To The Land

Jorn Lande has one of the finest and most commanding voices in Hard Rock and Metal today. He is also one of the most widely criticized because of his blatant copycat styling of both David Coverdale and Ronnie James Dio. This “second generation”, if you will, of grand Metal vocalists which include Jorn, Ralf Scheepers, Tobias Sammet, and Matt Barlow to name a few, specialize in recreating the staple Power Metal sounds of all time greats; Dio, Sabbath, Priest, and Maiden. Fans that grew up listening to these bands tend to relish in their modern day creations. Therefore, Jorn’s seventh full length solo album Bring Heavy Rock To The Land is destined to be a veritable pleasure to any Classic Metal listener.

Jorn’s previous studio release in 2010 was a tribute to Dio, performing a great variety of Dio cover songs. He has obviously harnessed the influence of Dio to create a slightly heavier and grittier performance on this album. Many of the tracks including the title song “Bring Heavy Rock To The Land”, as well as “Chains Around You” and “The World I See” could have easily been heard on a recent Dio solo album. Jorn digs down deep to invoke an aggressive passion in his vocals to re-create the signature Dio sound in a very justified manner.

There are a couple of interesting cover songs featured on this album. First of which is “Ride Like The Wind” originally released by Christopher Cross. The unique thing about this track is that Saxon also covered this song, and Jorn uses the general Saxon arrangement. Unfortunately, it comes off slightly flat, the guitars provide very little excitement, and the composition was really designed to be sung with a higher pitched vocal. The other “cover” song featured is a re-make of his own song “Time To Be King” from his work with Masterplan. The overall performance isn’t significantly different; this one may be somewhat heavier, in essence it just seems like a wasted spot.

One of the best tracks is a splendid six minute Power Metal composition called “Ride To The Guns.” It’s a great fervent song about fighting in battle, and is arguably the most memorable track. It has a similar tone and structure of Judas Priest’s “The Sentinel”, complete with a mid-tempo marching chant in the middle of the song, which makes it stand out so well.

Musically, Jorn’s vocals are the clear prominent force throughout the entire album. The twin guitar efforts of Tore Moren and Jimmy Iversen are never allowed to take precedence over the vocals. They are downplayed greatly on all the tracks, which is a shame as many of the tracks deserve a more passionate guitar performance to really drive the album over the top.

Overall, from an entire Jorn catalog perspective, it is one of his better efforts. Fans should enjoy the heavier sound displayed. There aren’t too many notable classics that will come from it, but certainly another commendable notch on the wall for Jorn as he continues to build his legacy as a premier vocalist extraordinaire.