When you hear or read the name Jonestown, you actually think of only one thing. Namely The Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, better known by its informal name Jonestown. This was a remote settlement in Guyana established by the Peoples Temple, an American religious cult under the leadership of Jim Jones. Jonestown became internationally infamous when, on November 18, 1978, a total of 918 people died at the settlement, at the nearby airstrip in Port Kaituma, and at a Temple-run building in Georgetown, Guyana's capital city. The name of the settlement became synonymous with the incidents at those locations. But recently, it has also taken on another meaning for me. Namely, a band that also calls itself Jonestown and consists of four musicians from Sweden. The band name refers directly from the previously mentioned event. Promise Of Enlightenment is their debut album released independently on May 29, 2026. The album title refers also directly to Jim Jones's infamous Peoples Temple cult. The band was founded in Stockholm in 2009 and disbanded around 2015. Strangely enough they got together again in the early 2020s with the majority of the original lineup. Meaning that nowadays they are consisting of Linus Larsén (bass, backing vocals), Johan Hambring (drums, backing vocals), Jacob Zetterberg (guitars) and Einar Svensson (vocals, guitars, keyboards). When they reunited there was only one thing they had to do. Finishing what they had started. The result is their debut album Promise Of Enlightenment. An album consisting of nine original songs and two covers as bonus tracks. This making it all together 75 minutes of music. Music which they recorded at Studio for Nations in Stockholm. They mixed and mastered it in Warsaw, Poland by Sebastian Has, long-time producer and co-producer for Behemoth. As for the lyrics of the song,s the themes are about religious fanaticism, geopolitical darkness, the sufferings of war, and classic tales from horror fiction and cinema. Before the the album actually was released they brought out the singles Jonestown and Viy which both can be found on the album as well. The most important is of course their musical style. This is a powerful mix of thrash metal and classic heavy metal packed with heavy guitar riffs. But they also take their inspiration from their punk roots with progressive songwriting. So as you can see this might be a strange combination for most of our readers who are more into real progressive rock music. But sometimes there is a thin line between different musical genres. And this also occurs for the music which you can find on Promise Of Enlightenment. For our readers it is my duty to pick out the more progressive rock related songs. Well this starts right away with the longest track of the album. The album opener is titled The Chains Are Off and is almost 12 minutes long. This track is a fine example of how they mix all of their different influences into one complete song. Burning Black Gold is another good example of how they incorporate more prog influences in their compositions. It's a nice tune which starts very mellow and melodic with excellent (twin) guitar parts before the more heavy up tempo parts take over towards the end. Very beautifully done if I may say so. The earlier mentioned second single Viy has some more prog influences at the start of the track. Away is also a fine more melodic mellow tune which sounds rather beautiful and a must listen for progheads. The same goes for In The Light Of A Frightful Dream. A real prog intro starts this tune as well before the more heavy guitar and vocal parts take over. Death Tape is one of the longest pieces of music on the album and has just like the album opener several different music styles. During the almost 12 minutes of music you will hear several influences of which one might have been prog related. As for the bonus tracks there is nothing to offer for the lovers of some real melodic music. The first one is titled Wart Hog and is a cover of the punk band The Ramones. The song dates back to the early days of Jonestown's band history. The second Breed is a cover of the grunge band Nirvana. Both not really my cup of tea! As you can gather from the above, the music Jonestown presents on Promise Of Enlightenment is not for everyone. You really have to appreciate very aggressive guitar and vocal sounds combined with occasional melodic musical passages. You definitely need to enjoy music containing influences from thrash metal, classical metal, and melodic music with a progressive rock slant. If that is the case, then it is certainly worth giving this album a listen or possibly purchasing it. *** Henri Strik (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
