Millencolin: the scandinavian hitband. Swedish punkrock, not in it's purest, but definately in one of the happy forms. It always tends to cheer you up. 
And here we have Millencolins 7th album (yes, time flies), still rocking hard in a softcore world! Every album tends to be a bit different. I guess the guys weren't too happy about the poppy 'Home from Home', because this is a lot faster. I'd say even faster than 'Tiny Tunes' and 'Life on a Plate'. 
What they did keep is the very slick cover. This time in a hunting theme (with a nice parental style lable that indicates Millencolin is not to be associated with guns). Slick, foldable and general good looking. 

All the songs are as infectious as the ones on earlier Millencolin records. But some songs are more infectious than others. For instance the opener “Farewell my Hell”, with a great intro, sounding in the new record. “Ray” being their last single and “Biftek Supernova” being a tribute to all the made-up language on earlier records.

 

I guess it’s not all that different in style. Why reinvent your style every record when it’s successful? Ofcourse even Millencolin evolves their style, a little emo influences here and there. But that is not the greatest audible difference. The things that surprised me most is Nikola’s vocals. They are so much more aggressive than before. The music is still mostly happy and joyful, but Nikola really puts a dark side on this Millencolin record. Still easy to swallow but definitely noticeable and this might be the introduction of a darker, more serious Millencolin age. It’s not just bringing back songs like “the Einstein crew”, but it’s a whole different aggressive thing. "Simple Twist of Hate" is a great example. Using some screams to make it all a whole. It still sound a bit unnatural, but it’s there and it’s one of those style changes that can mean a lot in the future. Another heavy song, “Mooseman’s Jukebox” shows us that this style definitely fits Millencolin.

But although they've put everything in there, Millencolin is still Millencolin. Still the same happy feeling and that pleases me very much. 
This record stands like a tall tower above all new punkrockrecords that are coming out lately. Sad thing we lost the ska influences, but it's rough and we all like rough once in a while. 

On the one hand this is a great record. But it’s not the greatest record Millencolin ever made and it’s not that one record that makes it all come true. But it does announce for great things!