release date: Jan. 1995
format: cd
[album rate: 2,5 / 5]
Track highlights: 2. "So Prime" - 7. "August in Rain" (live) - 13. "LAIKA" (4 / 5)
Studio debut album by Danish (post-) grunge rock, alt. rock, alt. metal band Schwarzwald Library released on AGM Music. The band consists of Jens Gotthelf (vocals, otava), Peter W.A. Sandorff (guitars, keyboards, vocals), Jeppe B. Jessen (bass guitar), Kristian A. Sandorff (drums, percussion). In 1995 grunge rock with Cobain was more or less all over and certainly this Danish band is very much inspired by Nirvana (at times too much), but Silver Surf remains a first draft, and it definitely has its moments. Like Psyched Up Janis, and their phenomenal debut Swell (1994), SL tries to combine grunge rock with its personal and unique style within the vast pool of alt. rock, but what is successfully established by Psyched Up Janis, never really works for SL. Having said that, I still find this album interesting, and not as a whole, 'cause the single tracks are of various quality, but for "So Prime", "August in Rain" [Nirvana copy], and especially "LAIKA", which truly is an original disturbing but great composition: "LAIKAAAAA!!"
