Trettioåriga Kriget's archives have been trawled through several times over the years by mainly Mellotronen. Together these releases make up a parallell history of the band, with both live tapes and other sorts of material, covering Trettioåriga Kriget's entire lifespan, also including the years following their reformations in the 90s and the 00s.
Glorious War (Mellotronen, 2004: rec. 1970-1971)
English vocals, instrumental
International relevance: ***
The most interesting of those archive
clear-outs is ”Glorious War”, for the sole reason it doesn't
sound much like we know Trettioåriga Kriget's style. Consisting of
tapes from the very earliest days of their existence, they hadn't yet
taken to the adolescent philosophical rants of their later Swedish
lyrics, and they were still too sloppy performers to live up to their
own musical pretentions that make most of their records sound so
constipated. They try hard, but fail which is relieving to hear. Not
that ”Glorious War” is very good – parts of ”Konserten”,
overlong at its ridiculous 18 minutes are OK – but it's amusing to
hear them make such fools out of themselves. The bass solo of
”Assimilation” is the worst I've heard since Malaria. The track
”Thirty Years War” sounds like a nod to the early Mothers Of
Invention but without Zappa's brain. ”Gloriwas War” is 53 minutes
of pure spiteful fun.
War Years (Mellotronen, 2008; rec. 1971-2007)
Swedish vocals, instrumental
International relevance: ***
The
entire second disc of this double CD is dedicated to the 00's so I
leave that aside. Disc 1 covers the band's original ten years. It
starts off with a crappy sounding 1971 live recording in the same
klutzy vein as ”Glorious War” before moving on to a couple of
1974 selections. The Trettioåriga Kriget sound is beginning to fall
into place but the recordings are unbalanced and out of tune which
hardly makes the band a favour. Remaining recordings on disc 1 are
from '76-'77 amd '79-'81 and tell us what we already knew, that the
band went from ostentatious prog rock stuck up on its own holiness to bad new wave.
War Memories (Mellotronen 1998, rec. 1972-1981)
Swedish vocals, English vocals, wordless vocals, instrumental
International relevance: ***
The first compilation of Trettioåriga
Kriget's unreleased material appeared already in 1998 and is a
mish-mash of studio recordings, radio sessions, live tapes and what
have you. So inconsistent and haphazard it's hard to make any sense
of it. An early stab at hard rock, later era synth pop and yodeling. (Literally, that is – I'm not talking about Robert Zima's twisted scrotum falsetto.) It does however have early song ”I've
Got No Time” which sounds like at least a half decent late
60s/early 70s American rural rock band.
Konserten -73 / King Eric (no label, 2010; rec. 1972-1973)
Instrumental
International relevance: ***
A CD-r single released in 100 copies.
”Konserten” is a trimmed down 1973 recording of the piece from
”Glorious War”, slightly better because it's shorter. ”King
Eric” is a crap-fi 1972 recording which starts out as bad jazz
before ending in a complete unlistenable mess.
War Diaries, Vol. 1 (no label, 2018; rec. 1974)
War Diaries, Vol. 2 (no label, 2020; rec. 1976)
Swedish vocals, English vocals, wordless vocals
International relevance: ***
Two volumes released through Trettioåriga Kriget's Bandcamp only. The cover for volume 1 says 1974 but some of it is actually from 1975. The four tracks from ”Progglådan” are here too which means that ”Progglådan's” 1973 date is wrong (as is a lot of info in that mess of a box set). Mostly live recordings in good radio sound, plus one demo in OK rehearsal space fidelity.
The second volume is a complete concert
recorded Swedish Radio's Tonkraft series in November 1976. The dreaded yodel reappears, but it's still quite
possibly the best ever live document of Trettioåriga Kriget, even to
my ears, with a focused performance and a well-rounded sound. It's
certainly the best to surface officially, head and shoulders above
any of the Mellotronen releases. Why this wasn't released first of
all is a mystery.
Glorious War full album playlist
War Years disc 1 full album playlist (Bandcamp)
War Memories full album playlist (Bandcamp)
Konserten -73 (first track only)
War Diaries, Vol. 1 full album playlist (Bandcamp)
War Diaries, Vol. 2 full album playlist (Bandcamp)
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