It seems Swedish punk bands never fail to dissapoint me. Well, the ones that are good enough to have their music released on this side of the Atlantic, that is. Adhesive has never had an album released through Epitaph, and is not signed to either of the two biggest Swedish independant labels, Burning Heart of Bad Taste, but in fact is on an the smaller Swedish label Ampersand Records. It seems odd to me that it's easier to find Adhesive albums than many Bad Taste releases.

Sideburner is the first of three albums (up to 2001) for Adheisve. Imagine if Bad Religion had hailed from Sweden instead of southern California, and you have something close to the sound of this album. That's not to say that Sideburner is anywhere near as good as Against the Grain, but it's not a bad album either. High speed music, clean, catchy vocals, simple but effective guitar riffs, and just the right amount of backup vocals.

The main thing that bugs me about the album is the recording. It's not poorly done, it just seems to take something away from the music. The songs on the album are well written with good lyrics and full of energy, but come out sounding kind of flat. This is just my opinion though...it's quite possible another music fan may think the sound lends itself perfectly to the type of music played.

Want to hear another complaint I have? Well, too bad, you're going to hear it anyway. On this album, Adhesive picks one style, and sticks to it. They don't show the diversity shown in later albums. But, hey, this is punk rock! What's you expect?

Check out the Adhesive website, and download some free songs. If it's your style, I highly recommend their other two albums, From Left to Right (1998) and We Got The Beat (2000). If you're an Adhesive fan already, you can't go wrong with this CD. Thirteen tracks of straight-ahead punk rock, with no slowing down. Rock on Sweden!