Album Review: Jorn - Over The Horizon Radar

Jorn Lande makes it hard to love him. He is without a doubt one of the greatest singers metal has produced since the glory days. His bellowing voice is a thing of wonder, and I absolutely love listening to him sing. The problem is that he doesn't put himself in position to be great very often. That is especially true with his solo career, where the limits of his songwriting are put at the forefront. For being as great a singer as he is, his career is littered with massive ebbs and flows. Most disappointing, he seems to quickly put behind him the projects where the songs are the best, instead returning to his less interesting form.

The Allen/Lande albums are great. The "Dracula: Swing Of Death" record is absolutely brilliant. Anything else he's ever done is pretty damn forgettable, and I will include every single solo album under his name. Thankfully, this isn't another of his tribute projects where he's singing old songs we might already know, but then again, at least some of those songs are memorable. That isn't often the case with his own work.

This part is delicate to write, but I wouldn't be honest if I didn't say this; Jorn doesn't sound like himself on this record. I don't know if it's something to do with the way the vocals were recorded, or if age has caught up with him, but his voice is not the same. His massive tone sounds thinner than ever, brittle at some points. It's as if all the bass in his voice is gone, and he has nothing but air and vocal fry to replace it with. I thought it was a bit off when the first single came out, but listening to the entire album, Jorn is struggling to sing these songs in the typical Jorn way. And since his voice is the main draw of listening to his music, that's a dangerous sign.

Jorn has always been a puzzle. He has writing credits on Allen/Lande's "The Great Divide", and on the "Dracula" album, but when he's writing for his solo albums, everything I love about those records is missing. It's almost as if there's a switch he flips to become more generic on his own records, and it's in full effect here. But even the old formula of a heavy chugging riff and his wailing voice doesn't work, because of what I said about his voice. He is, in this state, more reliant on hooky songwriting than ever, and he simply doesn't deliver that.

There are plenty of singers who have gone through these vocal issues, and the key is to adapt the music and the writing to the strengths of what you have become. Ray Alder did that fabulously, and even without the range he once had, is as effective a vocalist as he has ever been. Gary Barden, at least on record, doesn't strain himself, and relies on the uniqueness of his tone to carry the day. Elton John slowed down and tamped down the flamboyance when his voice changed. Jorn is fighting to be the old Jorn, and that only makes the limitations more apparent.

This would be another generic Jorn album if it wasn't for the real story. His music has been quite consistent on his recent solo albums, but it's not too hard to be consistently average. His solo records have never been appointment listening, and this is certainly one you can miss out on. Hopefully it will be one weird blip on the radar, but I'm afraid it may not be, and hearing it in that context would just be sad.