For those still trying to figure out just what this band is all about, stop it right now! Don’t try and figure them out, to try and get inside their heads to understand their music! Just play Pioneers like it was going to be the last record on earth that you would do so, and you’ll quickly, and easily immerse yourself into the world of Sweden’s Siena Root.

Siena Root have already been labeled as “Sweden’s finest rock band,” but the weight of that moniker aside, the fact that they have broken free from their homeland, and together with a new album are taking all the dusty roads in and around the US of A to promote it, is, well, beyond inspiring.

Deserved of a listen, Pioneers is the band’s first album to be released in the U.S. and their tour is fast enabling American audiences to catch up to the music of a land that has embraced their rock Gods for many years previous. In what can only be described as a heavy cross between old school Deep Purple and Iron Butterfly (I kid you not), Pioneers (released on Cleopatra Records here in the States) is experimental roots rock.

With their feet firmly planted in the world of analogue, their love for old school 70’s rock takes on a whole new life of its own. The quintet, knowingly “borrowing” the vibes of an era gone by, still manage to make all the songs on Pioneers their own. With a backbeat of heavy organ playing, whirling guitars, pounding drums, and soulful, blues-orientated vocals, the band has already earned high praise from some of their musical forebears. Both Mick Box (Uriah Heap) and drum legend Carmine Appice (Vanilla Fudge, Cactus) have laid down huge praise for Siena Root, so it’s not surprising that the band have included a balls-out bonus track version of Led Zeppelin’s infamous, ’Whole Lotta Love’ - a track not available anywhere else but here on this wondrous new CD, Pioneers.

Reviewed by: Russell A. Trunk

www.sienaroot.com