Pristine Road Back To Ruin CD

The fifth album from Norwegian band Pristine showcases the band's consistent development and increasingly diverse influences. Heidi Solheim, the band's lead singer and creative mastermind from Tromsø, spanned a wide musical and lyrical range to write eleven songs for 'Road Back To Ruin' – the band and her voice are the album's common threads.

The song "Sinnerman" was written during the 2018 tour, and its intensity makes it the perfect album opener. The title track barrels towards listeners with a massiveness that gives the song real weight. As does "Blind Spot", a song that includes a short intro performed in Arabic by Syrian singer Racha Rizk, which is followed by powerful riffs from Espen Elverum Jacobsen, Pristine's guitarist and the band's "secret weapon." "Cause & Effect" is at the other end of the spectrum; this track was recorded with the 20-musician string orchestra "The Arctic Philharmonic", which gave it a 007 vibe.

And then there is the truly atypical but wonderful "Your Song" inspired by Neil Young's acoustic recordings.