WELL CUT

Out of the mists, buried deep under time and space comes the voice of the belgian band Jenghiz Khan. Obscure, yes it is. I have been aqcuainted with this band for many years but it is only recently I have come to the conclusion it deserves a review. Sadly there's only one review of the album and though I dare say that mine will not differ all that much from that one I still think it's just and proper to grace it with at least two.

Jenghiz Khan made one album and then disappeared. What you hear on the album is all there is, I suppose, and what is it the then? I hear a band that has spent a lot of time listening to Uriah Heeps first album and checked out other, similar bands, like Deep Purple. The vocalist tries hard to sound something like David Byron with the high pitched screaming and he manages to pull off quite a holler. There's a lot of the old Hammond organ, and that appeals to me greatly. The sound of the album is raw and dirty, primitive and earthy. The soundscape resembles "Very 'eavy, very 'umble" and "In rock" which gives it all a very rough sounding edge.

The quality of the songs range from "okay" to "great" and comes in equal amounts. The real winners are the opener "Pain", the heavy and moody "The moderate" and the sort of epic closer "Trip to paradise". The two songs "Campus A" and "Campus B" are nothing but two rock'n'roll numbers that leaves me indifferent. "The lighter", "Hard working man" and "Mad lover" are nice enough but not much to write home about. The opener and the closer are absolutely the best with shifting moods and tempos. Great stuff.

When pondering on what rating to give I became, at first, blinded by the three great tracks and losing sight of the target but after carefully thinking and calculating I came to the conclusion that it is impossible for me to give the album anything else than three stars. It's a nice album, well worth a listen, but it does not land in the category excellent as a whole. One wonders what might have been had they released another album.

Raw, heavy and at times really excellent.