Review by Daniel for 220 Volt - 220 Volt (1983)

Sweden's 220 Volt are a five-piece heavy metal outfit that formed in 1979 & have gone through various incarnations over their long career but they're still together today after a succession of breakups & reformations. The first few years of 220 Volt’s rock ‘n’ roll career was fairly uneventful however things took a noticeable step up when their debut single “Prisoner Of War” gained some surprising radio attention in New Jersey of all places. This led to CBS offering them a recording contract & 220 Volt’s first full-length studio album was released the following year in 1983. It ended up being quite popular too & went on to sell over 10,000 copies in Sweden alone with countries like Japan, Germany & the USA also showing a strong interest in the band.

220 Volt’s debut sees the band taking what are inherently hard rock song structures & presenting them in a heavy metal context. This is mainly due to the approach of their twin guitarist attack with the performances of Mats Karlsson & Thomas Drevvin being the clear highlight of the album. Both are more than capable shredders & the lead work is really quite accomplished for a debut release. Randy Rhoads-period Ozzy Osbourne seems to be their primary influence from what I can tell & that should give you a reasonable idea of the way 220 Volt balance their commercial aspirations with a heavy metal sound, although fellow Swedes Heavy Load seem to have had their hooks into the band as well which isn't a good thing as far as I'm concerned. 

And just like Heavy Load’s debut album, there’s one HHHUGGGGEEE problem here & that’s the extremely questionable vocal skills of front man Jocke Lundholm. In fact, I’d go so far as to say that his performance is so inadequate here that he completely ruins the album & makes it pretty close to unlistenable for me. There’s even a ballad where he teams up with an equally unqualified female vocalist & they make an absolute meal of things, resulting in one of the most cringe-worthy songs I’ve had the displeasure of experiencing. This a real shame because even though 220 Volt aren’t offering us anything we haven’t heard many times before, they’re clearly quite musically proficient & possess a guitar sound with an appealing metal streak running right down the middle of it.

Unfortunately the empty feeling I’m left with at the end of the album is strong enough to discourage me from ever wanting to return to this record again. I have to say that giving it a few listens purely for review purposes alone was a real challenge for me. I thought Swedish heavy metal couldn’t get any worse after Heavy Load but unfortunately I was wrong.