When it comes to Norway’s maddest the cliché about the difficult second album has to be rewritten: After three brilliant albums Kaizers Orchestra have had to write the difficult fourth. On ‘Maskineri’ they continue their move away from the insanely energetic, oil-barrel banging Balkan-rock that has made them big in- and outside Norway. With distinctly mixed result.

Kaizers Orchestra‘s absolutely magnificent third, ‘Maestro’ (2005), took the Tom Waits inspired madness down a notch musically (lyrically it’s a concept-album about the altogether unpleasant insanity asylum Dieter Meyers Institution), and in retrospect it predicted what was to come.

‘Maskineri’ (“Machinery”) is calmer than its predecessor but unfortunately not as cool and collected. ‘9 mm’ is plain rock with a catchy chorus as the only extenuating circumstance, while ballad ‘Med En Gang Eg Når Bånn’ is straight up boring. The duet ‘Den Andre Er Meg’ stand out as the best of the “new” and Kaizers as we love them are still present in songs like ‘Apocalyps Meg’, ‘Moment’ and ‘Bastard Sønn’. But as a whole ‘Maskineri’ is lacking the unique energy that has always been this band’s force.

Was this an inevitable move for Kaizers Orchestra? Perhaps, but that doesn’t change the fact that this is their weakest effort to date. So, until they take on their (difficult?!) fifth album, I for one will enjoy them live or give the back-catalogue yet another spin.

Genre: Rock
Who: Kaizers Orchestra
Title: Maskineri
Label: Petroleum Records
Year: 2008
Country: Norway
Language: Norwegian
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Recommended tracks:
Moment – Apocalyps Meg – Den Andre Er Meg – Bastard Sønn