When you hear the name HOUSE OF SHAKIRA immediately your mind goes to the sweet-ass pop singer from Colombia. HOUSE OF SHAKIRA is a hard rock group from Sweden that rocks around the world for 15 years but their first attempt came at 1997 with Lint. Swedish groups and artists are well known for their tensions to make every music so melodic and HOUSE OF SHAKIRA are no exception to that. Their fifth album is out and its called Retoxed.

The album's self-titled opener is a piano-vocal song like a short introduction before Small Town kicks in with classic hard rock chords and up-beat theme. It is the kind of music that makes you imagine of the videoclip like you could be in it. Wonderful work in the backing vocals and the basic melodies. Andreas Eklund has the clean vocal mood that this band needs; along with the dual guitar sound of Mats Hallstensson and Andres Lundrtom create the perfect harmonies that makes the listener's ears happy. No Faith has a heavy riff kind of Nu Metal intro, there are these short rests and edgy start that the rhythm section of Per Shelander and Tony Anderson can make it sound even more heavy. Don't think that this is changing anything; the chorus returns to the familiar way of Swedish hard rock. Melodic to the bone so that it will stick in your head. Things are getting a little softer but the up-beat rhythm remains with Crazy But No Fool. It is a song that brings SOUL ASYLUM to mind. Gabon Viper has the riff from BLACK SABBATH's Sweet Leaf in the beginning, I'm not going to comment on that.

The rest of the album flows nicely with hard rock melodic songs like High Above, Red Alert (with the acoustic guitar parts but still up-beat songs), Bloodline and Angel Dancer. Until the final song Turkish Nights, that is the slowest of Retoxed, but it is not a ballad.  With lyrics about a strong love that reaches in the depths of Asia. Touching melody in a strange major scale and clean electric guitar parts ,that sounds like sitar or something like it, that creates the feeling of departure and hope at the same time. This is the way that HOUSE OF SHAKIRA chose to close Retoxed.
It looks like a tradition for Swedish hard rock and metal bands to create music with quality for the ones that are searching for it. HOUSE OF SHAKIRA definitely is the band that continues this tradition with Retoxed. Hard rock riffs, sweet melodies and lyrics about love in the four corners of the world; that is what Retoxed is about. The choice is yours.