59 Times The Pain is a weird band: once they played fast things as on their previous job “End Of the Millenium” or also on “Twenty Percent Of My Hand”, with a lot of influence not only from the punk’77 music but also from the New York Hardcore, the Sick Of It All style to say it shortly.

Now, with this new album, the band seems to have taken a new direction, mostly influenced by rock n’ roll and street-punk, a bit like The Swingin’ Utters. It is true that in Sweden and in the North of Europe there are a lot of punk-rock n’ roll bands, like The Hellacopters and Puffball, and maybe 59 Times The Pain are mostly influenced by that music rather than the old N.Y. hardcore, and it is true the change is not radical, as on their previous work you could hear their rock roots, but I personally preferred the old 69 Times The Pain.

Even before opening the CD, just looking at the cover, at the style of singer/guitarist Magnus, wearing an old-style white shirt, a black jacket and hat, and then, once put the record in the radio, with such songs as “Welcome to the 21st Century” or also “Rock the City” there is no doubt about what “Calling the Publis” is gonna be: a rock n roll record.

The lyrics, at least these, follow the 59 Times The Pain tradition, as they are mostly about social issues; maybe they do not deal directly with politics, but they are not far away from that.

Fans of the band will have no problem with this record, but I cannot not wonder how Burning Heart Records is producing moslty rock acts: Randy sound rock-n-roll on their latest album, then there are Voice Of A Generation, Bombshell Rocks, Puffball, Business and 59 Times The Pain too; it’s not that I do not appreciate these bands, but I miss the good times of Millecolin, Satanic Surfers and now sadly defunct No Fun At All. (Carlo)