Spirit Black

Jorn has been hit or miss for me. His talent is undeniable as a singer, but his writing has frequently left me ... unsatisfied. I loved his work with Masterplan and Allen-Lande, but his own songs are frequently unconventional in their structuring, which I suppose some might applaud him for, but aside from being less predictable, his choices have rarely actually made the songs better -- Just different. And if different isn't good, then maybe there is a reason other people haven't done it that way. That is neither here nor there though, because on this cd, Jorn seems to have found a way to bring it all together. On Spirit Black, I think Jorn has delivered his most consistent batch of songs yet. They are still heavy, they still have some of that old-school vibe, but they don't plod on for too long or venture off into self indulgent progressive territory. It's great to hear him working with some more accessible material under his own name for a change. For my money this cd seems to get better towards the end instead of stacking all of the best songs up front too. In fact, my favorite one is actually the last one (the bonus track), his great cover of the Thin Lizzy song The Sun Goes Down has a great feel to it. This is a great choice if you're a new Jorn fan or a die hard. Nice job. --Scott