Ear drums blood beaten by Skambankt. Whatta pleasure!

The first time I heard Skambankt it was like a shot of heroin rushing through my veins, shooting a stream of ecstasy from ear to brain to body and soul. Far away from the realm of Kaizers Orchestra a distant cousin sledgehammered its way into the Norwegian platform of dull music and their demand to be heard was far more a seduction then a hostage situation. Or maybe like an erotic hostage scenario where your musical crouch was wet from pleasure and aching for more more more.

That’s kind of how it was for me the first time Dynasti blasted through my radio at work and blew me away. I just had to find out “who tha fuck” these guys were. What I found out was that the band, at that point, had two albums and an EP available. I got hold of all three and played them non-stop in the car. Even my son at age 4 or what he was at that time wanted to hear the music on the short drive to the kindergarten. He even commented on the dialect of the vocalist, saying he had something in his throat (you know, like when you’ve got a cold and slimy stuff is stuck down there), that’s how intense he listened to it.

I have had the pleasure of seeing the band live 3 times. Not many times if you compare to a travelling fan who have almost lost count but all three concerts have been an explosion in my ears. A wonderful supernova splitting sound molecules and leaving my heart pumping like a mad machine when the last tone has died out and the last syllable is uttered.

The only disappointment came with the last album, Hardt Regn from 2009. It sounded like too much of the autopilot was working overtime while the band just had a good time making music. It was down a notch, but that was just because they had delivered music on such a high level up to that point. It is quite natural to lose a bit of your pace when you run along the track. What’s important is that you gain speed again and pump that magical shit out like a canon shot, a shot that only can be found in the wilderness of Snowmobile Land where Skambankts sound belong.

If Skambankt is a new thing to you, which is close to unheard of today with the bands success, you should start with the debut album and work your way forward. Take your time with each album, listen to it like a pack of over-religious people listen to the priest and let your musical soul fall in love with a band that has no intention to be anything else but the best, a monument in Norwegian music history. If they can keep up the quality of the self-titled debut, the EP Skamania and the second album Eliksir, this will be one of the greatest rock bands Norway has produced. And yes, we can believe in that mania!