In the city where I currently live, you can’t enter the bathroom of a rock-, metal-, or alternative-bar without your eye catching a few Ewïg Frost stickers on the wall. Although I have known their name for years now, I never heard their music. I always wondered what they would sound like. Truth be told: because of their font and their artworks, I thought they were a Motörhead coverband for a time. Oh boy I was wrong. Turns out they sound like a little bit of everything. From black’n’roll to boogie, and from punk to blues. Almost every style of the wider rock’n’roll-spectrum gets its turn on their new longplayer Aïn’t No Saïnt, which came out in March 2021. The term “longplayer” might be a stretch, ’cause the album clocks in at around 28 minutes. But on the bright side, that’s also why the album doesn’t feel “stretched”.
Without wasting precious time on an intro, Into The Night blasts its way into your eardrums. Keeping the bpm high from the first bar on. That’s how you start an album the “no nonsense” way. The perfect song to break the speedlimit to. Just like In da Not (frisst da Teife de Fliagn). If not for the difference in language, those two songs could have easily been one track. Cutting songs in half, to make the tracklist longer. That’s a classic Black Sabbath-move. But hey, it worked for Sabbath, and it works for Ewïg Frost (By the way: The second track’s title is an old saying, which roughly translates to “in adversity, the devil eats flies”. Austrian. What a lovely language).
Satan II and New Cold War are the next songs on the list, and the next songs to potentially crash your car to. By now, a more responsible reviewer would probably advice against listening to this record while driving. Luckily, I’m the very opposite of responsibility, so my advice is: Make sure you drive on an abandoned road while listening to Aïn’t No Saïnt!
After all the speeding and road rage, it’s time to calm a little down on your trip to hell. That’s what the songs 1918 and De Gier (is a Luada) (Greed is a harlot) are for. With a tiny bit of blues, and a whole lot of darkness, they’re the perfect halfway point. A little time to rest, before the need for speed descents upon you again. With a runtime of over six minutes, the instrumental 1918 could also be considered the “epic” of the album. Since the rest of the songs barely get over the three minute mark.
The beast gets into gear again with the swinging and rolling Bad Beat Boogie. Underlined by a great rock’n’roll keyboard, this song is definitely one of my favourites. The album reaches full speed again with my other favourite: Back On Wheels. A blood and fist pumping hymn to fastness (Or at least it feels that way).
The album doesn’t lose any speed on its endnote. Mary Jane, and its intro Desert Sunset (could have again been one song. Just saying…) are the perfect closer for what is probably the perfect album for speed-ticket-collectors. From now on, I will listen to bathroom-walls more often, when considering what to review next.
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I like music. All of it. Except for schlager… And ballermann. Oh boy do I hate ballermann.
