Day Of The Jackalope - Self-titled EP Review ⚡️

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Heavy Blues Rock From The Frozen North

Day Of The Jackalope‘s debut EP was recorded in May 2015, mixed by Jonas Kjølstad at At The Loft Recordings and mastered by Audun Strype (Motorpsycho, Turbonegro) at Strype Audio and was released on 29th January, 2016 via Heksekunst Productions.

The following press release gives you a great insight into what this band from Oslo, Norway are all about:

“Day of the Jackalope plays übertight blues-based groove rock reminiscent of Clutch’s youthful aspects, echoing the days of Led Zeppelin and Leaf Hound but with a smoky and more beer drenched fierceness.

Yet, it’s not all straight forward rock’n’roll with these guys. The instrumental parts are sophisticated, with an expression that oozes joy and enthusiasm, and they also deliver some epic spaced out parts.

You will find your feet stomping and your head nodding to this little gem of stoned blues-rock, coming straight out of the cold north.”

How is the sound?

Hard rock belter ‘Waste’ kicks things off in impressive fashion with vocalist Anders Hellestveit proudly growling defiance at anyone who dares to question the songs protagonist’s hobo lifestyle.

‘PTSD’ is similar in style to the opening track, with the highlight for me being the break at the mid-point of the song where Lars Brodal lays down a sick bass groove on top of Bard Sigurdson‘s dexterous stick-work before Jens Andreas Storaker compliments the sound with some great fuzz guitar.

‘Profiteer’ opens up with a nice riff which features periodically throughout this tale of economic Armageddon. The sound then goes off the charts with Storaker’s guitar solo near the close of trading of this particular musical tour de force.

‘Take It Back’ is another snarling brute of a rock song, full of energy and guaranteed to get you moving.

The aforementioned Clutch influence is very much in evidence in ‘New Lies’ featuring some classy variations in both the vocal delivery and musical tempo during the song.

Day Of The Jackalope is clearly a group of musicians that care enormously about the quality of material that they release and judging by the photos on the band’s Facebook page they also enjoy taking it out to the fans in the live arena.

I’m extremely confident that their fan base will be growing rapidly in the very near future.

Why is this album worth listening?

Amazing vocal performance.
Superb musicianship and song composition.
High-quality production and sound engineering.

In what situation you should listen to this album?

Would make an excellent addition to any party playlist or to get you fired up for a great night out.

Something particular to note?

Guitarist Jens very kindly provided me with a comprehensive list of the band’s gear for all you tech geeks out there (I’m looking at you Mr. Fuzz ).

Guitar: Gibson Les Paul Standard through an Orange Tiny Terror 1×12 cab (love to crank the tone on this one) and a Vox AC30. Two quite different amps that make some heavy sweet vintage sounds combined. Also have a bunch of pedals: Micro Pog octave, Park Fuzz Sound, Keeley Modded Blues Driver BD2, Z.vex Fat Fuzz Factory, Malekko Analog Phaser, Line 6 DL4, Cry Baby Wah wah.

Bass: Ampeg and a Tubescreamer.

Drums: Pearl VBX drumset, Zildjan A Custom cymbals, Hanus & Hert snare.