Davy Jones' Locker Healthy People Prepare To Die

Do you know what the term “Davy Jones’ Locker” means? Arrr! Avast ye mateys! This is a pretty good CD! Yar! Look at me parrot! Yar!

OK, I’ll stop that now.

Whether you get the pirate reference or not in this Norwegian band’s name, fans of good old rock and roll should really enjoy Healthy People Prepare to Die, Davy Jones’ Locker’s debut.

When I say good old rock and roll, I mean it. Healthy People… isn’t incredibly technical or fancy or full of itself. Power chords strum fast and furious over the melodic vocals of front man David Jones (a stage name, you think?), a very, very good rock singer. Not too high, not too low, he could be compared in some small ways to Dave Wyndorf (Monster Magnet) Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters). Hmm, maybe it’s the name David. Moving on.

The band around him could also in some ways be compared to the Foo to a certain extent, which, by degrees, could compare them to Audrey Horne, another Norwegian band that last year released the excellent No Hay Banda, a balls to the wall slab of hard rock. However, where AH tended to lean a little closer to the edge of metal, Davy Jones’ Locker certainly maintains a more straight up rock and roll vibe. And that’s a good thing.

“Make the Most of It, Or Throw it all Away” is a good example of Davy Jones’ Locker’s ability to take a minimum amount of music and make it project a wider range of melodies, as its single note piano stroke beats a devilish tattoo behind Jones’ voice, Vidar Godtfreden and Ole Andrew Bjornestol’s guitars and Tor Andre Fidjestad’s drums. Hooks are subtle on Healthy People Prepare To Die, allowing the listener to go back to it again and again, finding new reasons to enjoy it.

This is the band’s debut album and already I see a lot of potential for future releases. Someone sign these boys to a label before they get thrown off the boat into the deepest spot of the sea, which bears their name.