KITE – Bring Out Your Dead

When viewing styles of Norwegian hard rock bands, Kite is not a band which can be considered as the odd man out. They sound very similar to other hard rock bands. Their debut album, Bring Out Your Dead, does not offer any revolutions to Scandinavian hard rock music. The strength and power of this quartet from Oslo is simply too boring. The band’s music can be described as Melodic Hard Rock, with some elements of Grunge and Melancholy Metal.

Their label says they want to be the Norwegian response to bands like Pearl Jam and Turboneger, and the vocalist, Ronny Flissundet, does remind a bit of Kurt Cobain in some tracks, but they are light years away from these bands. Regardless, Kite has been around since 1998 and have played a lot of live concerts in both Britain and Scandinavia, including playing with bands like The Hives and Hellacopters. The members of Kite are Erik Lund (drums), Thomas Reiten (guitar), Ronny Flissundet (vocals/guitar), and Torgrim Torve (bass/vocals).

Kite is first releasing this debut album in Norway (October 2004) … this CD will be released in Britain in Spring 2005. Bring Out Your Dead contains 11 tracks with just a couple of good songs. Worth a few words is the opening track “Head First.” This is a really solid kick-off song with a lot of energy; it almost makes you jump to your feet. It’s got potential of becoming a hit single, and maybe it will have its share of airtime on radio or TV. It is a track that includes a fast, screaming guitar part, and it’s definitely the highlight of the album.

Another track worth mentioning is “Transparency.” Similarly in this song, it’s the good and tight guitar work that makes this song successful. It has a very good melody, but the song is sadly one of the shortest on the album.

The rest of the album it is all down hill, and the lyrics in some of the songs do not make sense at all. Kite is clearly looking for a signature sound, but they have got a long way to go. It does seem, however, like the band is both very hungry and angry in this debut … and that can possibly be a good quality for the future.