Danes Blended Brew have spent the better part of a decade touring the world, honing their skills and generally preparing to take a stab at world domination. Will they succeed with the release of new full-length Shove It Down?

Probably no, if we’re being brutally honest. Not that there’s anything wrong with the album, you understand. They’ve fermented an at-times heady soup of bluesy hard rock, based around the superbly commanding vocals of Jimmy Månsson and the towering organ work of the superbly named Lord Sebastian Groset. The majestic If The Streets, for instance, with it’s nods to the giants of seventies hard rock (by which I mean names like Free, Deep Purple et al) is certainly the work of an outfit with big prospects. However this is a bona fide high point that the band don’t replicate enough over the course of the other eight tracks to make them true world title contenders just yet.

Electrified Loser has a great title and some similarly impressive guitar work from Månsson, whilst the glam stomp of opener Ancient Alien will also raise a smile or two from the cognoscenti. Elsewhere, penultimate track Renegade also gives the ears a bit of a shake, whilst the balladic closer Don’t Say No again hints at latent greatness even if it doesn’t quite get there under it’s own steam this time around. But I’m guessing if you’re a fan of Brit rock royalty Thunder you’ll be absolutely bowled over by this track, quite possibly to the point where you doubt my reviewing acuity wholeheartedly.

There’s a lot to like about Shove It Down, and certainly it’s worth a listen if guitar-driven classic rock is your thing; Now, if they can just sift out the more workaday impulses they sometimes fall prey to, we might be talking about something quite special indeed next time around. Here’s hoping!

Shove It Down is out on May 1st.