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I don't have a lot to go on for Sweden's Inthered (it might be In The Red) or their self-titled CD that showed up in my mail with little fanfare and less information about the band or the album. It's a slim digipak with minimal artwork on the case/CD and only song titles, which are damn near impossible to read, on the back. I was brought up not to judge a book by its cover, so here we go.

Inthered/In The Red is a band that plays a Traditional/Doom mix of Hard Rock/Heavy Metal with some low, gritty vocals. When they play mid-tempo, like on "Revolving" and "In the Red," the combination of throaty singing and spastic drumming reminds me a little of Motörhead, while the slower stuff, like "A Heavy Load" or "Outright," had me thinking of Black Sabbath, especially the latter song, which picks up the pace near the end, similar to "War Pigs." There are also bits, like the opening riff of "Line by Line," that sound similar to Austria's long-running Hard Rockers Gallows Pole. Inthered/In The Red's songwriting isn't anywhere near as engaging as any of the aforementioned bands and the production is quiet and muddy but, I have to admit, there's some lo-fi charm to this release that had me tapping my foot on more than one occasion. It is not the heaviest thing out there so its appeal is limited but it has just enough individuality to make it worth checking out if your tastes run into the Hard Rock end of the Heavy Metal spectrum.