It’s no secret, that Sweden is a a highly creative musical ground for all different kinds of rock bands since the late 60’s. In current times, groups like Abramis Brama, Witchcraft, Burning Saviours and Siena Root, just to name a few, differ from each other, but they have in common a huge likeness for early-70’s heavy rock and have captured an authentic vibe of that musical period. Now we have the self-released debut from JOSH’S APPLETREE, another Swedish hardrock band, whose members had learned their 70’s lessons as well as the above mentioned bands. And although they don’t come up with a total vintage sound, all 70’s trademarks are in best place. An occasional hammond organ, that reminds me to Deep Purple and Uriah Heep, and a powerful bluesy singer who would also fit to every hardrock gang. But while other bands are more influenced by the early 70’s album of Deep Purple f.e., JOSH’S APPLETREE are more focused on the later output like “Perfect Stranger” or “House Of The Blue Light”.

At times, I really like “Atomic Fruit” because this five-piece is a very tight and heavy band with nice grooves and a solid songwriting, but I have to critize two things about the album. Firstly, the album contains fourteen songs, and that’s definitely too much! After the seventh song, it looks as if the band is running out of ideas and the album becomes more repetitive from song to song. Another thing I don’t like here are the lyrics, dealing with the usual topics as sex, drugs and rock’n’roll, but delivered in the most uninspiring way. Sorry guys, it’s not that I hate cliches, but for my taste the lyrics are too silly. But maybe I’m just a pseudo-intellectual idiot and I don’t own a big motorbike, because huge biker-festivals are a good place for a JOSH’S APPLETREE show, due to aforementioned reasons. But apart of my critic, the band has released a good debut and under the surface lurks enough potential, so they can do it much better.