Ding Dong. You're Dead. marks the return of Norwegian guitarist and composer
Hedwig Mollestad's return to her long-standing trio with bassist Ellen Brekken and drummer Ivar Loe Bjørnstad, just eight months after she led a sextet on
Ekhidna, her first solo album. This outing marks her trio's tenth anniversary. While it's impossible to say for sure, it seems that the more jazz-forward musical signature of
Ekhidna informed these proceedings. There's a different feel at work -- there's more jazz-rock than
Black Sabbath reflected in
Mollestad's still-molten guitar approach. In another shift, this date marks the group's first to feature compositions from Brekken, and she turns in two of the best on this set.
Unlike most albums cut in the pandemic year of 2020,
Ding Dong. You're Dead. was recorded by the group working together in the studio, not sending in tracks or showing up to the room separately. As such, an organic musical kineticism just drips from these grooves.
The Brekken-penned opener "Leo Flash Return to the Underworld" commences with a series of spiky, syncopated guitar riffs that simultaneously recall the
King Crimson of Red and the
Mahavishnu Orchestra of
Visions of the Emerald Beyond. Her knotty, overdriven vamp is buoyed by a circular bass riff that moves in ever-widening, harmonically rich circles, and Bjørnstad's interlocking kick drum and tom-toms are underscored by fluid, authoritative cymbal work.
Mollestad constructs a high-flying solo that registers the influences of both
Bill Connors and
Sonny Sharrock. "All Flights Canceled" directly references the handiwork of the pandemic in urgent rushes of punchy rock & roll riffs that bridge
Dick Dale and
Ray Russell. The title track moans into existence thanks to Brekken's resonant, canny arco playing. Her sonorous bow improvises across the lower register as
Mollestad adds a spiny, moody, and minimal blues vamp atop sparse, syncopated percussion from Bjørnstad. "Gimbal" is a true intersection of hard stoner rock and refracted jazz harmonics. Slow and plodding, Bjørnstad ups the ante with his swinging, dancing kit-work. Brekken's "Magic Moshroom" (sic) seamlessly weds fusion and prog as
Mollestad follows her upright bassline with tight, startlingly sharp arpeggios, sinewy blues lines, and metal vamps. "The Art of Being Jon Balkovitch" channels the inspiration of "Freeway Jam" from
Jeff Beck's
Wired as the trio wed funky bass vamps, popping snare breaks, and expansive guitar harmonics. Closer "Four Candles" is a spectral, psychedelic guitar ballad whose roots emerge from the folk music of
Mollestad's native Norway and the British Isles. Bjørnstad employs a platoon of percussion instruments in framing her tender, spooky guitar lines while Brekken offers an abstracted bassline that colors the lyric margins.
Ding Dong. You're Dead. showcases this trio at a peak, turning their music inside-out to discover what lies hidden inside it, then exposes all that to the open air. While the
Mollestad group continue to develop and offer plenty of firepower, here they do it with nuance, sensitivity, and commanding authority. ~ Thom Jurek