Freedumb
Feeding The Tapeworm
Tonehjulet Kräftpest

Freedumb hail from the South Eastern most parts of Norway, near the Swedish border, and they're one of a many bands tied to the way cool and clever label/collctive Tonehjulet Kräftpest (TK). I first heard Freedumb (named after the 1999 album by Suicidal Tendencies?) on the TK compilation I Don't Wanna Be Part Of Your So Called Punk in 2010. That same year Freedumb launched their debut album, The Freedumb Curse (a joint release between labels TK, Chimney Records and Nakkeskudd Plater), after putting out a couple of singles and several CDrs, including a split 7" (entitled 2 Wrongs Makes 1 Right) with TK labelmate Göttemia.

Freedumb are punk, they're a three-piece counting Torstein Eriksen (also a member of Norsk Råkk - which is a great live act) on bass and vocals, guitar player Kim Trøbråten (of Fork, from the TK stable), and drummer Ole Vanem (of Knuste Ruter), and they've been on the punk track since they formed in 2003. They play high-octane, energetic hc-trash-punk of the sometimes melodic, sometimes trashy kind. On Feeding The Tapeworm they blast through ten songs in some 24 minutes, meaning short and efficient songs. Half of their songs are sung in English, the other half in Norwegian. This might be a bit odd, but it's a free world. If I must say so, I'd perfer all of their songs to be Norwegian. I guess this is a matter of taste, and quite possibly due to several (?) songwriters. Anyway, Freedumb flag the DIY trashy/catchy punk spirit rock, but my guess is their songs work better live. With beer. Opener "Gimme a break" is right on target, in your face. ...and from there Freedumb don't give you/me/us a break. To name a couple of the cooler tracks, along with the aforementioned opener I'd say "Teitingene" ('Stupids') and "Husets vin" ('Wine of the house'), and their somewhat 'epic' (it clocks in at close to 4 minutes!) "Stengte ører" ('Closed ears'). Anna Karine Brække (of Lucky Malice, formerly of Anti Poison Slammer - another two TK acts!) steps in on guest vocals/backing vocals on a few tracks, which adds something extra to the sound and the songs.

Freedumb pound out their 10 songs and speed to reach the goal line. This is not the rocket science rock thing. It's trashy, it's no shit punk rock. Period.

Copyright © 2016 Håvard Oppøyen