A Swedish band on a Finnish label. I tell you, those Scandinavians, they’re thick as thieves, when their not deliberately fixing the downfall of other nations in football (soccer), they are constantly collaborating to try and take over the worlds of heavy music. However, where so many Swedish, Finnish and of course Norwegian bands have succeeded in making vital, moving and explosive music, I am afraid Nine are bereft of that joie de vivre that makes their countryman and Scandinavian cousins so it.

In fact, I remember feeling the same way when I saw this band in 2001 supporting Arkangel and Length of Time. They were definitely out of their depth that night and were heckled quite severely throughout their set. The problem I have found is that although their material is loud, rocky, and full of a swinging, crunching groove, there are never enough moments, let alone songs to pull me in, to make me want to engage with their work. Even when Deathwish stepped up to release Killing Angels in 2003, I was still unmoved, finding it a flat, tepid affair. Now, in spite of these prior experiences with this band, I approached It’s Your Funeral with an open mind, thinking that maybe this could be the time that Nine convince me that their records are worth investing my hard earned clams.

Nope.

Sorry guys. Shit still aint flying. Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing greatly wrong here. This is a nice tidy collection of well played, well constructed songs and I’m definitely feeling the groovy, gritty textures of the record, really bought forth on numbers such as the moody opener ‘No Air Supply,’ and ‘The Blade.’ Unfortunately most of the record follows in a similar fashion resulting in a massive homogenous blob for 36 minutes. Closer ‘Stigmata,’ is the epitome of the band truly spraying and thus wasting their load. The track contains some of the album’s best riffs and creepy, jarring guitar lines that mingle smoothly Johan Lindqvist’s yelps but just as the track promises at heading towards something explosive, it ends. Just like that, and I’m left stone-fucking-cold and pissed that the band has teased me so.

This is in fact how I felt throughout the record, teased. Its annoying that the band have so much talent, potential and interesting ideas that could be used to create something powerful and captivating, but rather then bringing forth something of this ilk, they stay locked in cruise control, frustrating rather then engaging.

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