PASSENGER - Passenger
May 22, 2003, 21 years ago
(Century Media)
Singer Anders Friden, best known as the voice of In Flames, is expecting to catch all kinds of hell for Passenger, and with good reason. He and Gardenian guitarist Niclas Engelin have taken a huge step away from their respective bands and turned out an album that sounds like it's geared towards North American nu-rock "culture". Big, clean vocal melodies book-ended by grooved guitars and Depeche Mode synth bitz, the only thing that identifies Passenger as being Swedish metal-spawned is the production, which sounds like it was spat out of Studio Fredman (which it was). In Flames fanatics that despised Reroute To Remain would do well to avoid Passenger entirely, guaranteed to be put off at the sound of IF riffs mashed together with Friden's ultra-clean delivery, particularly on songs like 'Circus' and 'Just The Same', which walk the line between RTR and Saga. Hell, Friden sounds like Michael Sadler! The lack of technical playing and solos, the grooves, the melodies; all these things earmark Passenger for the Stone Sour/Linkin Park crowd and metal fans with high tolerance for pain, but it has to be said that there are indeed some cool songs to be had in 'Carnival Diaries', 'In My Head', 'Just The Same' and 'Eyes Of The Mind' Call this Stone Sour without the Corey Tayloe "die, fucker" aggression and you know where Passenger is going.
