Straight from the land of IKEA furniture and Muppet chefs comes Swedish metal band Closer with their impressive debut CD,"A Darker Kind of Salvation". These guys are direct descendants of In Flames and Scar Symmetry, just with fewer transitions to melodic vocals. (And really. . . those few transitions aren't even that melodic.)

The album features 10 songs that are all pretty much interchangeable, without much variance in sound, save for some keyboard verses on track 4, "Open Your Eyes". The longest tune clocks in at about 4 minutes, nineteen seconds, so unlike some of their other countrymen's bands, nothing ever gets too epic, experimental, or exploratory. Lead screamer Andreas Melberg's edgy vocal blasts work, but are turned up to 11 for most of the album; some more diversity would really help the listener on full album plays.

What makes "A Darker Kind of Salvation" impressive is the abundance of high quality heavy riffs. They just keep coming at you, song after song. The outro to "Who Am I?" is killer; you want the song to just keep going. But alas, it doesn't.

Closer's dependence on riffage could be cause for concern, because guitarist Jonas Skoog left the band directly after recording the CD. If the solid hooks can be attributed to him, then here's hoping new guitarist Per Bergquist is able to churn them out at the same level.

Like many talented athletes rookie seasons, this young band shows lots of promise, flashes of immaturity, and a struggle to carve out a unique style and identity. Still, the good moments are really, really good - - and there are enough of them to keep me happy. I'm looking forward to the sophomore effort.

But OK - - one irrelevant question: How is the band name pronounced? Is it "Closer", as in "one who closes things that are open"? Or "Closer", like the Nine Inch Nails song featuring the line "I wanna f##k you like an animal"? Ah, but now we're back on Muppet references.