The Black Sweden

It is a mark of a good tune that you can make it sound good in a variety of styles. Some of the best tunes in pop music came from Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus, the song-writing partnership behind ABBA. The Black Sweden, formed from a bunch of seasoned Scandinavian sessioneers, is one of the many groups whose aim is to create a Tribute to ABBA in their own particular idiom -- in this case Heavy Metal. It works, and it's hilarious.

Thrill as the intro to 'Smoke On The Water' segues into 'Mamma Mia', or Kiss's 'God of Thunder' gives way to 'SOS'. It doesn't always work -- 'Ballroom Blitz' tries hard to become 'Dancing Queen' but doesn't quite succeed -- but the general effect is great. The thing that comes through most of all is that Black Sweden is there to rock, not to mock. They clearly love and respect Sweden's greatest export (other than Volvo), evidenced by the fact that they do straight versions of 'Winner Takes it All' -- not once but twice, the second being an 'unplugged' version. If you liked Spinal Tap, you'd like this, too.