Forever

Forever is the most recent album by the Danish Psychedelic Garage Rock band On Trial. This album is a fine collection of songs with a great sixties vibe. On Trial proves with this album again their biggest class.

But I'm wondering, is On Trial still around or have they stopped to exist? That last thing would be really a pity, because this band is really good. I'll just assume that they have stopped. So rest me to say that the album Forever is an awesome closure of their impressive carreer. Enjoy!

On Trial are back with their first studio recording in 6 years. Ok... the last record was not released 6 years ago but it was recorded that long ago. A big change as well with Guf and Anders no longer in the line up. They picked up Bjarni on guitars and Anders on drums (playing with the band since the summer of 2003!). On this new record, the band have completely stuck to the roots of their sound and made a great sounding record with cool melodic and sometimes hard hitting psych rock songs. Bo sings brilliantly as always and Henrik and Bjarni meld together just as Henrik and Anders or Henrik and Morten used to give each track that cool dual lead driven sound, but never forgetting the melody. Mountain starts the CD off and features acoustic guitar (not found on many On Trial tracks) and is a great upbeat melodic track. Black Seagull reminds me a lot of LOVE and is a really cool track with some sitar sounds and a cool dual psych guitar section. Kill City Lights is a hard hitting track like Pot of Gold or That's Right. One Good Morning has a bit of a dark mysterious feel to it. Not sure if it is the strange guitar sound or what... a moody track. Blood River begins with a bass line by Nik as the guitars slowly filter into the mix. This is the longest track on the CD (5½ minutes) and I love the totally psyched out guitar in the middle of this one. Believe is another hard rocker. Too Late Too Loud takes it down a lot and is probably the most laid back track on the CD and features some great vocals. Morning Sun in Burg Herzberg is the most pop song of the record but a great 60's styled track with organ as well. The CD ends with Going North and is the bands erotic sex tribute song! Another great record guys, just don't make us wait so long for the next one.

(By Scott Heller at Aural Innovations)

On Trial - Forever (2006)

DOWNLOAD

Website & MySpace

Head

Head is the sixth album by the Danish Psychedelic Garage band On Trial. This album doesn't feature any On Trial songs, but is a superb collection of covers. All these covers are played in the true vein of On Trial.
This band plays excellent versions of songs like TV Eye/Starship (Stooges/Sun Ra), You're Gonna Miss Me (13th Floor Elevators), Interstellar Overdrive (Pink Floyd), Five Years Ahead Of My Time (The Third Bardo) and more great covers. I think this album is a good representation of the influences for On Trial. Enjoy!

Fuck, yes. Have you ever seen High Fidelity, the adaptation of Nick Hornby's novel? It's about people like you and me: nerds, music geeks, people who think making superfluous lists is more fun than politics, candlelight dinners and the seventh season of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. Anyway, do you remember the introduction? A record player, a shiny surface turning, a needle touching the black, shiny vinyl, the hiss, and then… THE 13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS' "You're Gonna Miss Me"! It's a great opening, not only because it starts off the movie with such a great song - a classic in rock, nothing less - but for the sheer fact it's there, at the start of this big-ass movie featuring big-ass actor John Cusack. From that moment onwards, that movie couldn't go wrong anymore. I would have loved if there had been more music talk instead of those love stories, but okay. It reminded me how my body gets electrified when hearing that song. Danish band On Trial cover that song, "You're Gonna Miss Me," and managed to evoke an identical reaction. It takes literally three seconds of that song to take me to the stage where I jump up, pump my fist into the air, whistle, wiggle my fat butt, call my girlfriend, tell her that rock and roll is my religion and give the finger to the man. It's fierce, passionate, it rocks, it swings, it's religious fervour translated into sonic waves. Head originally was a five song 10" EP released in 1999, but last year, the band added 8 more songs (and left off a live version of "Slip Inside This House," if I'm correct) and none of them is less than excellent. Of course you already knew the band's main influences because they wear 'em on their sleeves, but from the first song onwards, it's clear this is not gonna be some lame cash-in effort. It's a tribute to their heroes, a way of giving back the inspiration. Most songs - at least the ones I was familiar with - are pretty faithful and usually even more raw and straightforward, but it's definitely an On Trial album and not just a 48-minute exercise in imitation. Even though these songs were recorded in a span of several years - which is audible, as the songs from each session have their own distinctive sound - there's a unity that holds 'em together. Perhaps the most recent material contains less surprising choices, but boy do they crackle with energy! Their cover of "Parchment Farm" ("Mose Allison by ways of Blue Cheer"), released as a single, is appropriately muddy and a blues-soaked and perhaps one of their songs that resembles the vintage 1970 sound the most. The single's B-side is an ultra-psychedelic take on Pink Floyd's "Interstellar Overdrive," so crammed with disorienting, drugged, fucked-up effects that even Syd Barrett would've raised an eyebrow or two. And it's heavy! Black Sabbath heavy! Most of the five cuts that precede these two are classics in their own way: "Reverberation" could be filed under swirling psych, the kind Kula Shaker attempted to create but never quite pulled off this successfully. Love's "A House Is Not a Motel" lacks the original's restraint, making the classic solo at the end less of a surprise, but they manage to conjure up the same atmosphere with great performances, so I ain't complaining. The Stooges' "TV Eye" is an almost lethal blast, driven by super-charged turbo-bass and deliciously snotty vocals and the way it segues into the MC5's version of Sun Ra's "Starship" is pure gold. Man, squealing feedback rarely sounded this good. The last five songs were - I think - all recorded before or during the New Day Rising-sessions. Funny coincidence: Love's "Signed D.C." - wet dream alert from guitar aficionados! - was also covered by Hüsker Dü's Grant Hart. The two biggest revelations, to me at least, were songs by bands I've never heard: Third Bardo's "Five Years Ahead of My Time" and Macabre's "Be Forewarned." The first one starts off with shimmering guitars and then transcends into a deliriously distorted rocker, the second one is a fantastic slice of hypnotic rock, sounding melancholic - yes, nearly macabre - and Bo's vocals are simply great on top of that relentlessly churning riff. This is garage rock as intense as it gets, this is garage rock that makes dozens of wannabes piss their pants, this is rock and roll how I like it. What else can you say about songs that sound like they're the greatest thing ever while you blast 'em at maximum volume? The album then adds two four-track recordings, one of a fine, but not great, Stones-song ("Citadel"), the other one a desolate piece of folk-rock by Roky Erickson, perhaps the single biggest influence on the band's music and vision. Brimming with energy, dedication, psychedelic uh… experiments, insane guitar antics and all-round performances, Head manages to achieve several goals at one: it makes you curious about some bands (I am so gonna check out Macabre/Pentagram, even if it turns out it was a shit band and I'm gonna dust off those Stooges/MC5/Love/13thFE-albums), shows a band doing what they're best at (stir up some vigorous rock music) and ends up being one of the best all covers-albums I have ever heard. On Trial? Fuckin' A!
(Review by Guy Peters)

On Trial - Head (2003)

DOWNLOAD

Website & MySpace

Blinded By The Sun

On Trial was a legendary Psychedelic Garage Rock band from Denmark. This band made eight studio albums and Blinded By The Sun is the fifth one. On Trial excelled in their Psychedelic Sixties sound. If I'm correct there was also some involvement of some Baby Woodrose members. A highly recommended album by an outstanding band. Too bad they split up recently. Enjoy!

What is it with these guys? Even though I'm usually quite cranky at this hour in the morning (8:32 AM), it seems that these guys are allergic to making bad or even mediocre albums. Basically, if you like New Day Rising, you're gonna dig this one as well. Like that album, Blinded by the Sun has a tendency towards shorter, tougher songs than the ones so elaborately displayed on Head Entrance. The production is probably more elaborate here as well, while there's a bigger variety in styles and sounds. Some people collect stamps, others collect naughty toys or records, these guys seem to collect guitar pedals. Guf's influence is still increasing (he wrote more than half of the lyrics) and it shows, as about half of the album are tack-hard cuts of late '60s/early '70s psych rock, mixed up with hard rock, pop and even folksy stuff. The title track continues the more accessible direction of many of NDR's songs: it's muscular, yet melodic, tough, yet accessible. It's the same deal with most other tracks: "Everything" is a marvellous fuzzed-out rocker with vocalist Bo resembling the MC5's Rob Tyner so much it's scary, while "Driver" (an obscure cover) is ultra-catchy hippie music. Those songs are not even the hardest rocking tunes, the ones that are guaranteed to set their live shows ablaze. No, for those opportunities, there are cuts like the call to arms-rock of "Miles Away" that comes complete with sirens and all; the exquisite six minute-beast "Downer" (most likely to impress the stoners in the audience, think of Monster Magnet-meets-Pentagram) with its awesome guitar sounds and the simple, in-your-face hard rock of "Poor Soul." It's not a 50-minute rave-up, though, as the broadened sound palette also includes quieter, moodier material. The half-acoustic "Too Late," sung by Guf, is as atmospheric as this kind of stuff gets, dark and fatalistic. The real winner here, however, is "So Close," a wonderfully realized slice of lush L.A. psych-pop. With those melancholic vocals and additional trumpets it's a dead ringer for Love's folk-psych. With the exception of "Downer," all the songs are easily digestible and short, but in good old fashion, there's a reward for trip addicts at the end of the album, with two +10 minute space travels inviting the listener to enjoy the view from up above. "Slippin' and Slidin'" is a mantra-like dirge that takes a while to build up, but manages to create a weird, melancholy atmosphere and when those compressed vocals kick in, the visions are complete. "Kolos" is darker and heavier and despite being less melodic, there's damn fine guitar stuff goin' on and that acceleration and intensification probably leads to stunning results in a live setting. The brief "Kosmonaut" serves as a hard-rocking coda to that drone. Blinded by the Sun isn't a departure from New Day Rising like that album differed from Head Entrance before it, but because of the uniformly strong songs, terrific musicianship and occasionally beautiful moments, it ranks as an excellent album. Not as idiosyncratic as Head Entrance (God, I can't seem to keep my mouth shut about that one), but a lot more satisfying than most of today's self-conscious drivel that's being sold as "da new thing." Whatever, I'm sticking with On Trial.
(Review by Guy Peters)

On Trial - Blinded By The Sun (2002)

DOWNLOAD

Website & MySpace