Having released their 2006 debut "21st Century Killing Machine" straight away on Nuclear Blast, the Swedes ONE MAN ARMY, led by former THE CROWN vocalist Johan Lindstrand, decided to strike while the iron was hot and, after playing a tour of nearly a hundred shows, recorded a new full-length titled "Error in Evolution."
The new material was surprising practically from the first minutes -- I certainly did not expect the second album to differ so dramatically from the debut. If "Killing Machine" was crafted in the spirit of old-school death metal from the mid-'90s, the fresh material delivers a serious shift toward thrash and melodic death of the Swedish variety in recent years. I found the explanation for these innovations in one of Johan's interviews. As it turned out, the first album was practically his solo project -- he had written ten of the twelve compositions. But after extensive touring, the band transformed into a tight-knit unit, and the new material was written with the participation of virtually the entire group, with each musician bringing something of their own to the sound of "Error in Evolution." Clean vocal parts appeared on the choruses, characteristic of MDM, as well as hooky group shouts that '80s thrash bands were famous for. All of this is spiced up with excellent guitar passages. Also featured on the disc is a gorgeous cover version of "He's Back (The Man Behind the Mask)" -- an Alice Cooper track written for the soundtrack to one of the "Friday the 13th" films, featuring a guest appearance by Christian Alvestam. As bonus tracks on the russian edition, there are live versions of three songs from the previous album, recorded during a concert in Stuttgart the prior year.
All that remains is to figure out what error occurred in evolution to warrant an entire album's dedication. Certain conclusions can of course be drawn from the cover art featuring four mutants led by a chief monster -- could that be the origin of the band and album name?! But it turns out things are not that simple. According to Lindstrand, the central lyrical concept involves presenting the listener with problems of contemporary society that are concentrated not only in Sweden but around the entire world: wars in Iraq, gang violence and terrorism, school and university shootings in America, and many more. According to Johan, the blame lies with an error in evolution that occurred many centuries ago. As for us ordinary listeners, we can only take note and draw the appropriate conclusions that might in some way help correct this ERROR.