Sweden’s 220 VOLT burst onto the scene in 1983 with their self-titled debut that’s rooted deeply in the NWOBHM. One could argue they had as much talent as many of the bands in the British movement.
What hurt their debut was mostly in the production department. I’m assuming there wasn’t a huge budget and the reverb/echo on the lead vocals is pretty painful. It’s pretty dated production that you’d hear in the early 80’s. In this case the guitars were too overpowering and the drums sounded very sloppy.
As you try to separate that from the songs, you realized the band has some potential. They lyrics weren’t ground-breaking, but they weren’t stupid either. They were quite “Metal” in fact.
The lead single ‘Prisoner Of War’ was the highlight of the album. But we did get a taste for what the band is capable of. Perhaps they never did live up to their potential, but they still have a good following around the world.
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It only took about 30 seconds in to realize 220 VOLT has made some major improvements to their sound on their second album “Power Games”. Lead singer Jocke Lundholm has also improved dramatically.
The lead track “Fireball” sets the tone as their NWOBHM influence is evident once again. That movement had a number of influences of it’s own and 220 VOLT seems to follow more of the Deep Purple route. And since the band is from Sweden, expect to hear a lot of Melody and Harmony. Not as much as fellow Swedes EUROPE might have but it’s there.
I’m guessing they influenced the Sweden Metal movement themselves. “Child Beast” was quite dark and heavy. In fact, the album as a whole was just heavy ended.
220 VOLT are far from an elite Metal band at this point, but they’re doing everything right at this point, more than anything perhaps getting with the right producer would have helped them quite a bit.
The early 80’s were the days when you put out shorter albums, but you put one out every year! Needless to say you didn’t often see massive changes from album to album, but in their case, they took a huge leap forward.
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Sweden’s 220 VOLT put out their third album in three years in 1985. “Mind Over Muscle” features another jump in quality as far as the production goes.
Peter Olander took over some of the guitar duties from Thomas Drevin, but I didn’t personally notice a big change overall. What I DID notice was more backing vocal support for singer Jocke Lundholm. The choruses were much more full and melodic. The song “Electric Messengers” was the track that I first noticed the additions to the songs.
As the album moves along you realize they have shifted slightly from their Metal NWOBHM roots to incorporate more of the popular Los Angeles sound. The track “Power Games” is evidence of this shift. Yeah, I know, their last album was called “Power Games”, it’s a bit confusing.
“Mind Over Muscle” is easily their most diverse album with songs like ‘Secret Dance (Xymania)’, an interesting track that relies more on a interesting guitar chords. The opener “The Tower” is a great example of early Power Metal. The title track “Mind Over Muscle” is another example of their shift from the British to the L.A. scene and how easily the bands could alter their sound slightly and fit more into what was happening in the States.
I don’t think there’s much arguing that this is 220 VOLT’s best effort to date. You could argue about their slight move towards mainstream, but you can’t deny the album is produced better, the band is tighter and you could feel they’re working hard to become a better band with every album.
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By 1988 band like Bon Jovi, Def Leppard and Poison had moved into the mainstream. Sweden’s 220 VOLT had started to move in the move commercial direction a couple years earlier with “Mind Over Muscle”. It’s quickly evident that move was complete with “Eye To Eye”.
The band is hardly recognizable from their debut 5 years ago. This album is much more slick and produced and resembles fellow countrymen EUROPE quite closely. For the record, I’m personally not that upset about the change. They actually sound pretty good, the guys have come a long way musically, even if the style has changed.
Now I’m guessing, but they most likely had pressure to produce radio hits when they moved over to EPIC Records having been on CBS for their first three albums. The problem was in 1988 you had to be really good or really lucky, preferably both. 220 VOLT were a solid band, but they didn’t have that one big song to push them forward.
If you’re into the 80’s Hair Metal and that scene you WILL like this album, it is good for what it is. Could they have been better off doing another Metal album? Maybe for the hard core fans, but I can’t blame them for chasing after the dream. They weren’t the only ones who did that, go back to the first couple Def Leppard and Europe albums, they were much more “Metal” but they didn’t take off until they “found” the right sound.
Unfortunately, the gamble didn’t work as they didn’t put out another album until 1997. But that was the story for many 80’s bands, they were dropped from the major labels in the early 90’s only to reform later thanks to their fans demanding to see and hear them again.
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