Beach Sloth

Sons of Odin – Hammer Time 6.9

               The sense of humor is rather strong on this EP. Look at the title alone. In the songs Sons of Odin maintain a certain level of sarcasm right down to the silly ‘MC Hammer’ Norse combination. ‘Hammer Time’ is a weird mixture of ska and folk. At times it sounds completely unheard of, like why don’t more people do this? What Sons of Odin does is keep it interesting mixing the ska and folk into a rather comfortable hybrid. Thus while it remains tight groove wise there are a few mellow moments that show off an understanding of folk. 

                A jerky rhythm comes in at the opener ‘Success’. Yes ‘Success’ is definitely on the more Ska side of things. Everything about Ska is heard, right down to the extreme youth. Listening to the youthful optimism of the music (in spite of the lyrics) gives off the sense of being totally confused. I like the confusion Sons of Odin go for. For me the best fusion of folk and ska occurs on ‘Yellow Ribbon’. Here Sons of Odin allow themselves the freedom to diverge. Indeed they have a lot of fun with some of the bombast on here. 

                Most of the songs on here tend to peter out towards the end as the energy dissipates and all that’s left are the acoustic guitars. These are fun songs. Sons of Odin sound youthful, full of life, and a bit ridiculous. That’s fine. What they do here works and with such a short playing time it does not grow old.