Covered Call Money Never Sleeps

Tweet

by Franco Wissa
Staff Writer

As luck would have it, it seems, as of late, that there has been a flux of melodic hard rock to once again fill a huge musical void. With the nonsense that seems to be infiltrating our airways, thank God for this, Covered Call’s Money Never Sleeps. Filled with superb vocals, deep guitars, and hard rocking drums, this could, and damn sure should, please even that most discerning critic. Sounding like Lipservice era Gotthard or Jaded Heart with the great hard rock guitars of Velocity’s CD Impact, Covered Call has shown that they can indeed take a rightful place in the rock world.

Taking their name from the financial word for the selling of securities and investments (makes sense, seeing as how the band members make their living as stock traders,) what comes right out of the box are the amazing vocals of front man Thomas Vikstrom, whose work can also be heard with Candlemass, Brazon Abbot, Stormwind and Therion. His authoritative, full voice totally encapsulates each track making it almost seem that at times that only thing needed to bring these tracks to life was his voice. Time and again, his voice comes across as The focal point of Money Never Sleeps. And while this may seem to be a redundant thing to mention as this can be said for most releases, it must be pointed out that Vikstrom’s vocals were just what this band needed. Taking a listen to releases where it is the drums that are the focal point (Bonham,) the guitars (Dokken,) bass, (Geddy Lee’s outstanding My Favorite Headache,) or keyboards (Kayak,) on this, it is the vocals. And to that end, Thank God, Vikstrom’s vocals work – and work extremely well. However, with all that having been said, note must be made about the guitars of Joel Carlsson and Morgan Rosenquist, and as well the rhythm section of band founder/drummer Ronny Svanstromer and bassist Thomas Thulin. God Damn it, these boys can play, for they are all tremendously gifted musicians.

From the opening track, the amazing “”All Because of Me,” to the pianos of “Anything You Want,” the wonderful harmonies of “Shine,” the hard rocking “Never Again,” the distorted guitars of “I Wanna Be Free,” the drums of “Let’s Make it Real,” and the CD highlights “Till the End,” and “Nothing At All,” will all undoubtedly make one reach instantly for the volume knob. So excellent in fact was “Nothing at All,” that it seemed it just couldn’t be turned up loud enough. But there is what makes this a CD just what this rock world needs. In a time when mainstream radio is pushing fluff and marginally talented “vocalists” in our direction, and creating a huge void for the hard rockers, bands like Covered Call take up the slack, release exceptional CDs like Money Never Sleeps, and because of which, we can say no to fluff, find a road where the traveling is easy, slip this into our car’s CD changer, reach for the volume knob, turn it up as loud as possible, and loose ourselves in our kind of hard rock. And damn those who may give us disparaging looks.

The sound rocks hard and the production was superb. With not a filler to be heard, from start to finish, the overall tempo and vibe was spot on. The layout was perfect, with the hard rock intensity building until the break up of the mid CD ballad, to the thundering closing of “Let’s Make it Real,” not a track was out of place. It is a hope that Blistering Records understands what they have on their hands with the release of Money Never Sleeps, and gives this band the support they need to bring their music for all to hear.

This could very easily be on many of 2009’s best- for this was outstanding – simply outstanding.

Track Listing

All Because of Me
Till The End
Shine
Never Again
Anything You Want
I Wanna Be Free
Nothing at All
Money Never Sleeps
What About Us
Let’s Make it Real

Musicians

Thomas Vikstrom – vocals
Joel Carlsson – guitars
Morgan Rosenquist – guitars
Thomas Thulin – bass
Ronny Svanstromer – drums

HRH Rating: 9/10