Swedish rockers Ström When encountering a rock’n’roll band like the 5-headed powerhouse of STRÖM, you will never be able to escape the feeling that there’s a “before” and an “after”. That’s how it works – once your ears are exposed to something that you have never heard, but at the same time so damn good, you simply start asking yourself: “How the hell is it possible that no one has done this before?” Well, if you know your rock’n’roll encyclopedia well enough you can pretty easily map out from where this band cherry-picked their influences – such as for example The Darkness, Airbourne, AC/DC, Bon Jovi or the way that Kiss sounded in the mid-to-late 80’s. And then we still haven’t mentioned any of the fellow Swedish compatriots (such as Hardcore Superstar, Pugh Rogefeldt, Magnus Uggla, Noice), neither have we referenced any Danish counterparts (D-A-D, Pretty Maids), or Norwegian for that matter (Turbonegro et al). Here’s the catch though: Instead of sounding like any of all of those acts in particular, STRÖM kind of sounds like all at the same time. All mixed into one giant concoction of honest, accurate, straight-forward, no-bullcrap, balls-to-the-wall, good-timin’ rock’n’roll, without ever sounding a tiny bit over-produced or fabricated. This is partly thanks to the massive production control the band has attained by recording the debut album almost entirely on their own in their hometown of Växjö, but also because they hired the much experienced and acclaimed Swedish producer Johan Forsman Löwenström (Håkan Hellström, Weeping Willows, The Soundtrack of our Lives et al) for mixing and mastering duties. The album sparkles and shines thanks to him.