The orchestra from hell is back! Abandon all hope... 
Pandora's piñata --- Diablo Swing Orchestra --- 2012 (Candlelight)
A band I stumbled across quite by accident, and only checked out due to their incredibly weird name, Diablo Swing Orchestra combine the best elements of showmanship and vaudeville with art-rock, avant-garde and heavy metal, but that's not the be-all and end-all of them. Quite frankly, and quite truthfully, you really don't know what you're going to get with DSO: one minute you could be listening to gothic female vocals singing an operatic aria, next you're nodding to a tarantella, and it's followed by a blistering guitar solo which segues into a trio of cellos. And that can be in the same song, never mind the same album! So what's on offer here I can't tell you; let's explore this mysterious rabbit hole together and see where we end up, what do you say?
Well, we're thrown right into the fray with hard metal guitars and hammering drums alongside
Mardi Gras-style trumpets and the vocal is indeed female, high and lilting, joined by a deeper male voice, as Daniel Hakansson joins Annlouice Loegdlund, and the whole thing staggers along like some glorious mid-thirties Chicago street festival or a Broadway musical with some very dark elements. Nice bit of strong violin coming in then, before the trumpets and trombones take the lead, courtesy of Martin Isaksson and Daniel Hedin respectively. "Voodoo mon amour" then is typical --- if anything about this band can be described in that way! --- of the sort of music melange you can expect from Diablo Swing Orchestra. "Guerilla laments" opens with a big bongo drum intro then some really mariachi trumpets before Annlouice comes in with the vocal, very salsa feel to it, almost like watching a parade during the Day of the Dead festival.
She does really well with the vocal here, unsupported by Hakansson, let loose solo, and the sense of fun and carnival this track unleashes really has to be heard to be believed. Some really mournful cello somehow doesn't dampen the mood, then Hakansson does indeed contribute to the song (well, he does anyway: in addition to singing he plays guitar on the album) but his vocal is distant, echoey and Annlouice is quickly back taking over. There's great energy and oomph about the song, then proceedings slow down considerably for "Kevlar sweethearts", with Annlouice exercising the softer side of her vocal talents, the music mostly built on violin and brass, a hard metal style guitar from Daniel Hakansson underpinning everything. A soft, atmospheric instrumental driven on violin and synth follows, lasting less than a minute before we're into the total insanity that is "Black box messiah", everything jumping back up in tempo and the initial vocal sounding like kids or chipmunks or something: totally trippy! Great bass line from Anders Johnasson keeps everything together as the track rocks along on Hakansson's churning, boogie guitar. Don't ask me what it's about! I haven't a clue, and most of DSO's songs are so out there you really don't even attempt to try to decipher the lyrics.
"Exit strategy of a wrecking ball" goes into overdrive on the metal guitar and hammering drums from Petter Karlsson, with for the first time Hakansson taking the lead vocal, almost more moaning than singing really. The big heavy guitar is quickly replaced by sonorous organ and a thrumming bass as Daniel croons the lines over the new musical soundscape, then it changes again as violins briefly intrude before the drums kick back in and the guitar screeches back into life. Great trumpet and trombone section then, synth blasting away as the track heads towards its end. Chiming bells and music-box style keys introduce "Aurora", sparse violin backing Annlouice in full operatic mode again,
pizzicato strings keeping the beat behind her as cinematic synth swells in the background, fuller violins and cellos joining the musical backdrop with rolling, dramatic drums. It's Annlouice Leogdlund's finest hour, I believe, as she gives it all she has, really belting out those notes, and the power and emotion that comes from her singing is a thing to behold.
After so dramatic a performance, the song kind of peters out towards the end, fading on strings and cello with violin and bringing in strummed guitar and sitar on "Mass rapture", with a very eastern feel to the music, some more great basswork from Johansson and a double-violin attack, also a double vocal as Hakansson and Loegdlund combine once more with devastating effect. The song has something of the idea of those sort of belly-dances about it, where the music gets faster and more intense as it goes along, and you can imagine some girl jerking her body to the rhythm, getting into a higher frenzy as the music increases in tempo and intensity. It just doesn't let up really at all, and you feel quite exhausted by the time it hammers to a halt.
"Honey trap aftermath" gets boogeying again with a great blast of brass and a catchy chorus, Daneil taking the vocal amid trumpets and trombones with again a real carnival atmosphere, some fine solo trumpet by Isaksson matched by some just as effective 'bone from Hedin. Great acapella ending, like a Welsh male voice choir, then we're into the pounding "Of Kali ma calibre", quite medieval sounding and with again Annlouice back in opera diva mode. Great male backing vocals supporting her, a mid-paced sort of song --- no it's not, my mistake. Just shows you can never take anything for granted with DSO: don't you even read your own intros, Trollheart? It just leapt into a fast rocker, then back again, then up again, leaving me to reflect that it's quite hard to even review a DSO album properly. Now it's dropped to gorgeous cello and violin, slowed right down in a stately waltz almost, and here come the trumpets and we're off again with the tempo ratcheting back up. Man, I'm tired!
The closer is also the longest track, eight and a half minutes long, so if the above was only half that, and went through that many changes, god only knows how much this is going to evolve! "Justice for Saint Mary" opens on a slow, violin and brass-led passage, with Daniel Hakansson on lead vocals; I'd say a ballad but we all know this going to change, and probably soon. Lovely bit of interplay between violin and cello, then acoustic guitar comes in, backed by violin, a lovely trombone line holding while Isaksson plays a mournful trumpet above it. Very little in the way of percussion really, just a few shimmering cymbals and timpani, and I'll take a chance and say that the basic melody is going to remain the same now, as we're almost three-quarters of the way through the song. Strong violin now and the drums are finally kicking in bringing with them a heavy metal guitar that smashes all in its way, the tension in the track kicking up several notches as it fades then sort of breaks into disjointed sounds, almost like samples, or as if the track is corrupt, but knowing DSO I expect this is actually intentional, and ends the album in the weirdest way possible.
TRACKLISTING
1. Voodoo mon amour
2. Guerilla laments
3. Kevlar sweethearts
4. How to organise a lynch mob
5. Black box messiah
6. Exit strategy for a wrecking ball
7. Aurora
8. Mass rapture
9. Honey trap aftermath
10. Of Kali ma calibre
11. Justice for Saint Mary
Don't worry if you come away from this album saying to yourself "Wtf was that?" because this is most people's reaction to Diablo Swing Orchestra. It's impossible to prepare anyone for what they'll experience, listening to one of DSO's albums, and the best if hackneyed advice is to expect the unexpected. But even then, you can't predict what weird and wonderful ideas the guys will come up with, what styles they'll mesh and what genre boundaries they'll gleefully cross over, with no respect at all to rules or conventions. It doesn't matter if it's acid jazz, punk fusion, progressive rock, salsa or blues, if it fits in a song these guys will use it. Opera, classical, gothic, metal, folk, country --- to Diablo Swing Orchestra there are no barriers, no rules and nothing they won't try.
Which I guess must surely make them contender for one of the most progressive bands of this century.
If the Devil has an ipod, he must be grooving along to this!