Friendship: Alchemist of Your Destiny

Norway's Friendship (basically the solo project of Fredrik Skalstad) are a curious act. Sounding a bit like Dashboard Confessional if they were writing the soundtrack for a 90's teen movie, this is some catchy, well recorded, and slick pop rock. I'm no stranger to the poppier/more commercial side of rock, and while there's a level of familiarity here as I've already stated, Friendship are a bit of a breath of fresh air compared to what you might hear on the radio. Fredrik's newest release, Alchemist of Your Destiny, sounds like it would be more at home alongside my Symphony X and Blue Oyster Cult albums based on its title alone. Don't let them fool you.

Alchemist of Your Destiny is a poppy rock album with a couple of neatish surprises sprinkled in. The guitars are plentiful, both acoustic and electric and there are plenty of jangly and chimey chords that overlap and lend a sense of atmosphere that don't tend to come in droves in the genre, as it were. What's more, there's some surprisingly heavy bits here as well, particularly "In The Now", which is kind of Muse-like and thumpy with its chugging riffs and searing (by genre standards) vocals. The back half of the album actually is fairly heavy overall, with lots of big distorted guitars and echo-laden vocals. Pretty cool and unexpected after the sugar-coated first half. The lyrics, on the other hand, are largely cliche and reek of rhyming for the sake of it, but I've heard far worse. Skalstad is a fairly capable vocalist, if a bit nondescript.

Alchemist of Your Destiny is a solid rocker of an album, albeit not terribly memorable. It really does conjure up nostalgia of the era I grew up in, and makes me think of some of the more artistic poppy "alternative" rock that was popular back then. I doubt it will blow you away, but it's a fun listen that may surprise you with some of its meatier bits.

Tracklist:
1. Memories
2. Seize Your Life
3. Been Longing
4. Into The Wall
5. Love Story
6. Never Forget
7. In The Now
8. Say No
9. Last Goodbye
10. Give Space
11. I Am Breath
12. The Light

Added: April 13th 2023
Reviewer: Brandon Miles
Score:
Related Link: More Information
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Language: english

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