Almost DEAD MEN (Sweden) – Silian Rail (single)

The Uppsala-based Almost DEAD MEN are still hanging on, defying the flatline for as long as they can and still churning out classic 70s Swedish punk, often to an equally classic Quo style riff.

Last time out (January 2023!) they were telling the tale of an ‘Angry Man’. Their subject this time is ‘Silian Rail’, which apart from being the name of a band and which is taken by Brett Easton Ellis’ ‘American Psycho’, which I did once read, long ago – and which is pretty weird – and the later film.

Silian Rail is the name of an imaginary typeface that adorns the business card of the main character, who is a businessman that enjoys serial killing as a hobby, or is it just in his head? Thus it has come to represent obsession with prestige and status.

So now you know. And in the song Silian Rail becomes the character,

“Silian Rail, dressed to kill…looks like a god…he is the psychopath superstar.”

You’ll hear chord progressions that you think you might have heard before and strangely, towards the end, they are eerily reminiscent of the final bars of Kim Wilde’s ‘Kids in America’ from 1981.

But that’s academic. These guys can rock, Janne Hellman has the perfect voice for their style and this song has already played half a dozen times while I’ve been writing this piece.

I hope they can get some airplay in the UK. I believe it would go down well here.

Who’s next? Can I suggest the Luke Jennings’ novels and BBC TV series psychopathic female assassin Oxana Vorontsova, aka Villanelle, from ‘Killing Eve? They could have some fun with her.

Find them on:

Website: https://www.almostdeadmen.se/