Young Acid – Murder At Maple Mountain

by Mark 'Yeti' Richard · Published September 10, 2024 · Updated September 10, 2024

Young Acid is a supergroup from some of Sweden’s accomplished heavy rock artists. The band members use the first names “Mio” and consists of: Arvid Hällagård on vocals (Greenleaf), Alex Stjernfeldt on guitar (Grand Cadaver, Novarupta), Martin Wegeland on bass (Domkraft), Andreas Baier on guitar (Besvärjelsen, Vordor), and Svante Karlsson playing drums (The Moth Gatherer). Young Acid released their debut album earlier this year on Majestic Mountain Records, entitled Murder At Maple Mountain. The record is inspired around the work of Swedish children’s book author Astrid Lindgren (The Tomten and Pippi Longstocking.) It contains 10 songs in 34 minutes and was released on April 19th, 2024.

The music can be described as punk infused rock with energetic and uptempo rhythms. Most of the songs are fairly short, around three minutes each and straight forward with tight playing and great singing. “Into The Depths” opens the record with a nice rocking groove. The mid pace flow of the song displays noisy guitar melody tinges and punk accents. The music is simple yet expansive at the same time. “Bitter Little Man” starts with the kick drum and some nice fuzzy bass, courtesy of Wegeland. It’s quite the musical departure from his main band Domkraft (review here.) It’s a cool flowing song with excellent vocals from Hällagård. The guitars sound raw in a good way with a nice dirty tone. The third song “Fightmaker Street” is another rocker with some guitar high register squealing and some crooning vocals. The tight drumming is obvious and the tune blends right into “Pv 444” with its hardcore pacing and rhythm. It’s a cool track with some nice snare drum hammering and guitar riffing.“Woodshed Blues” cranks right in with some tasty leads and groove driven rock . It’s a head bobbing track with a catchy vibe throughout . Hällagård’s singing is truly stellar once again. The next song “The Crust” was the first single on the album. It’s a great representation of what’s in store for the rest of the record. Straight ahead rock with one of the genres best vocalist in Hällagård. He had a busy year with Young Acid and the latest Greenleaf record (review here) dropping a couple months later. His contribution to this band can’t go unnoticed.

The punk rock label is only a sliver of what Young Acid is really about. They don’t have the shouty or whiny vocals that traditional punk bands display but the rhythmic pacing is mid tempo like punk and hardcore music. The band is more rock in execution. The sound could slightly be classified as garage or indie rock at times too but that doesn’t do it justice either. Any way you label them, it’s just tight, on point, in your face, pure rock fury. “The Kids Of Rumble Village”and “Shortcomings And Longstockings” fit this vibe well. Very well crafted songs that take no prisoners. The second single “Run Boy Run” is driven by the bass and drums with some atmospheric guitars tones mixed in. By the time Young Acid get to the final track “2002 (Special Version)”, they slow down the pace entirely and create a fantastic closure. The song is the longest on the record at just over four minutes long. It starts with clean guitar and trademark Hällagård singing and builds into a psychedelic transcendence with synth layered over with some punctuating bass guitar. It’s a beautiful orchestrated song that captures the band in a new element of creativity.

Overall, The Murder At Maple Mountain is an excellent recording. I’m curious to hear if Young Acid will play some shows and write new material. It would be a shame if this is a one off release but either way, the music and the songs are a testament of what these five musicians are capable of creating together.