Album: Butcher's Ballroom by Diablo Swing Orchestra

Butcher's Ballroom
cover art

I can be a pretty hard-to-please listener, and for every album that I write a review of (almost all of which are positive) there are 20 or more that I've listened to and been unhappy. When I listen to something that's well crafted, I appreciate it, but that doesn't always mean it's great. In fact, it rarely is. One of the very rare diamonds in the rough is Diablo Swing Orchestra's Butcher's Ballroom.

I've been holding off writing a review of BB for some time now because I didn't want to do it off the cuff without thinking about it for a bit. Diablo Swing Orchestra is a Swedish avant-garde metal band, according to Wikipedia and BB is their first album which was released for free via their Web site and Jamendo.com. They've since maintained their ranking as one of the all-time most popular albums on that site, and for good reason.


The album itself is a hybrid of swing jazz, heavy metal and operatic elements among other, per-song influences in a mix of English, Swedish and Latin ... yes, Latin. To say that this is a bit unusual is a severe understatement. To my knowledge, they're the only band to hybridize swing jazz and heavy metal, and the combination actually works well, surprisingly enough.

The most popular track on the album is the first, "Balrog Boogie". Though not in English, English speakers will no less appreciate the chaotic clash of styles and influences and the intricate and nearly infernal result!

"Poetic Pitbull Revolutions" plays with the classic Spanish trumpet style and turns it into something truly epic. The lyrics are English, but I'm so taken by the music that I barely even notice the lyrics on this song.

"Rag Doll Physics" has one of my favorite lyrics from the album, "if I close my eyes, would it spare me the sight of decay, corruption, how we nurture destruction, and everything that will doom a soul?" Combined with Annlouice Loegdlund's amazing voice that can hold the note on "soul" for just long enough to melt your frontal lobe, this is definitely a song not to miss.

After Rag Doll, you may find yourself needing a bit of a rest. How about a nice, soothing chant in Latin? That's "D'angelo", the next song on the album. While I'm not often in the mood for this song, when I am, it's a joy. Soothing and yet, not syrupy.

To complete the middle part of the journey, D'angelo is followed up with a sudden jolt: the violin and guitar-heavy "Velvet Embracer". Sadly, I find this song to be a harbinger of the more mainstream heavy metal that is the signature of their second, non-free album, Sing Along Songs for the Damned & Delirious. It's certainly not a bad song, and the violin work is exceptional, but it's just not my thing.

If all of this sounds like it's your cup of tea, then I suggest checking out the album on Jamendo (link at the top of the article), but be aware that their second album (Sing-Along Songs for the Damned & Delerious), which is pay-only, is a very different album. While it has many of the same elements, it's much more an example of the mainstream heavy metal genre than the experimental fusion that is Butcher's Ballroom.