Old Thieves – S/T

Old Thieves is the self-titled debut album from these Swedish punkrockers out of Karlskrona in the south of Sweden, a town for me musically most known for the rock/punk-act The Bones. A band that like Old Thieves combines punk and rock in their sound.

Other than The Bones, Old Thieves shares some DNA with bands like The Peepshows, Bombshell Rocks and Saturday’s Heroes as well. I was expecting some more of a Streetpunk vibe on here, but it leans a little more towards the rockier end of the spectra. Let’s start in that end, with style of the music. What I miss is a bit of energy and some more shout-along-choruses. Perhaps it’s the &roll part of the punk I miss. The energy captured by contemporaries such as City Saints and Saturday’s Heroes is missing a bit here. A part of it might be that I’m not a big fan of how the guitars are mixed in, I want them a bit more upfront at times, a bit more in my face.

The album doesn’t completely fall on deaf ears though. There’s no denying that Old Thieves can write good songs. Troubled Mind has that strong melody that I like, and with the text about self-doubt is nice. The same goes for Weirdo, a mid-tempo punk-tune about being an outsider. Old Thieves creates an pretty nice mood on the record, and it’s easy on the ears. But perhaps the edges are a little bit too rounded.

There’s a nice mix of tempo on here as well, going from the pretty slow Beautiful Darkness, through the more mid-tempo tracks that dominate the album, to the more energetic as in Pissed Off!. I would have liked to see the band step on it a little bit more at times though. Old Thieves debut is by far not a bad album, and I have no troubles in giving it an recommendation for anyone who’s a fan of the style. It might not be that original, and as stated before, personally I think it lacks some energy to totally engage me. With that said I’m gonna keep an eye on these guys going forward.