GLUECIFER – Same Drug New High

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8.0

• Bands:
  GLUECIFER
• Duration: 00:39:21
• Available from: 01/16/2025
• Label:

• Steamhammer Records

The life cycle of many contemporary hard rock/heavy metal bands now seems quite clear to us: there is the phase of youth, when you ride inspiration, enthusiasm, desire to rock the world, stringing together one album after another and, when possible, exhausting tours wherever you are called.
Subsequently, perhaps, one reaches a relatively more mature age, and perhaps one has not moved towards a dimension that allows one to essentially live on music or so, the publication times become longer and the live appearances become fewer.
Then when the tasks of life become truly overwhelming and other priorities emerge, we stop. And after years, sometimes several, the desire to play returns, because you know how boring it is to be away from your passion!
It went like this also for Gluecifer, a creature of carefree rock'n'roll related to punk and some touches of glam, of Norwegian origin: authors of a string of successful albums between 1997 and 2004 – five – the then boys from Oslo went on an indefinite break. A long silence, broken first by the 2018 reunion, now by “Same Drug New High”.

The title seems to suggest that we can rest assured, that the band has no intention of practicing a sport other than the one for which they have become known to the public. Expectations perfectly respected and a look of understanding with that of the feisty rooster on the cover.
Gluecifer are back for real, starting exactly where we left them, which were the same coordinates they also frequented in previous years, in the name of a loyalty to the line which, in their case, has never allowed itself significant deviations. The founding members Biff Malibu (vocals) and Captain Poon (guitar) are now joined by the other guitarist Raldo Useless, the drummer Danny Young and the bassist Peter Larsson, for an overall alchemy that doesn't make you regret the records of the first phase of their career at all.
The first single and opener “The Idiot” is an incendiary anthem like Gluecifer have written many in their career, simple and crackling in every aspect, ideal for reconnecting with their history, reassuring fans and welcoming this new era of the band: a drum-only attack, a short wild solo, soon dubbed by the bass, launch the song towards the dimension of pure fun that has made the Norwegians a small legend of rock'n'roll.
Biff Malibu's excited metric tugs at you with a contagious enthusiasm, making you perceive how much desire, how much hunger for music the group is channeling into this return album. In their essentiality, Gluecifer have always had a good variety of approach, alternating fast, noisy and aggressive pieces, and other relatively quieter ones, oscillating between lightheartedness and a thin melancholic veneer.
A mix that works perfectly, today as yesterday, making us savor almost adolescent atmospheres, as if the pressures and disturbances of adulthood, at least while listening to “Same Drug New High”, disappeared. This is the case of the committed lightness of “I'm Ready”, equipped with a particularly airy and singable chorus, which has in itself some assonance with the chart-topping rock/punk of the late '90s.

On some occasions the quintet intersperses both situations, moving with ease from harder and grittier rock to easy-to-use melodies, as in the midtempo of “The Score”, more severe during the verses, loose and singable in the chorus. The album transmits spontaneity and freshness at every moment, it makes use of a bombastic production at the right point but not excessive in volumes and distortions, making the essence of the Gluecifer sound perceived in all its peculiarities.
There is absolutely nothing out of place, we can also appreciate the successful rockabilly nuances in “1996”, recalling not only in the title the early days of the formation, or the poignant melodies and the delicate crescendo of “Another Night, Another City”. A comeback after such a long wait requires credibility, recognisability and an inspiration worthy of the name written on the cover: all characteristics referable to “Same Drug New High”, a chapter that does not make us regret “Basement Apes” or “Automatic Thrill”. Welcome back Gluecifer!