No. 3: Pandora's Piñata

Personnel: Pontus Mantefors (vocals, guitar, synthesizer); Daniel Hakansson (vocals, guitar); Annlouice Loegolund (vocals); Oskar Reuter (mandolin); Erika Risinger (violin, viola); Diana Lewtak (violin); Emilia Wareborn (viola); Johannes Bergion (cello, background vocals); Anna Melander (flute); Lucy Rugman (clarinet); Ekaterina Skidanova (oboe); Martin Isaksson (trumpet, background vocals); Daniel Hedin (trombone, background vocals); Elisabeth Jansson (horns); Michael Carlqvist (double bass); Petter Karlsson (drums, percussion); Wictor Lind (timpani, percussion).
Recording information: Boo Studios, Stockholm Sweden; IF Studios, Gothenburg, Sweden.
Arranger: Diablo Swing Orchestra.
Swedish avant-metal dance band Diablo Swing Orchestra's third full-length outing, the dense and typically diabolical No. 3: Pandora's Piñata, opens with a sinister bayou boogie ("Voodoo Mon Amour") and closes with a lush symphonic epic ("Justice for Saint Mary"). While that may sound disparate in print, it makes perfect sense when distilled through a pair of speakers, as Diablo Swing Orchestra, who sound exactly as their name implies, has the ability to bind nearly any genre to its will, and while less adventurous hard rock fans may scoff at the very notion of combining the tried and true, rib-cage crunch of metal with salsa ("Guerrilla Laments"), jazz ("Honey Trap Aftermath"), and Middle Eastern music ("Mass Rapture"), those with an ear for the exotic will find themselves suitably bloody and bruised, and eagerly awaiting the next adventure. ~ James Christopher Monger