Makthaverskan make music for the margins. Formed by a group of schoolmates from Gothenburg, Sweden, the dream punk band rejects the ultra-slick production and cloying cuteness that dominates their native country’s famed pop machine. Instead, they lean on the angsty melodrama of ’90s Swedish rock group Broder Daniel, who were in turn influenced by the Velvet Underground and the Jesus and Mary Chain’s feedback-soaked pop. But despite some major aesthetic differences, Makthaverskan do share a crucial belief with artists like the Scandinavian hitmaker Max Martin, who once said that “a great pop song should be felt when you hear it.”
Chasing that deceptively simple goal, Makthaverskan vocalist Maja Milner pens her lyrics quickly, in an effort to preserve the urgency of an experience. Her wistful confessionals and biting “fuck you”s create tension with the more uplifting guitar melodies that swirl around her. If the group’s ferocious last album, 2013’s II, was akin to ripped flesh, then III finds the band picking at the scabs of cauterized wounds. Though it is certainly a darker listen, III is largely about the same concepts as its predecessor: unquenchable desire that eclipses reality, the ruthless blow of rejection, and the struggle to remain afloat even when “humanity equals misery,” as Milner sings on the lyrically-fatalistic and sonically radiant single, “Eden.” But on tracks like “To Say It as It Is” and “Days Turn Into Years,” Milner and her bandmates—bassist Irma Krook, guitarist Hugo Randulv, and drummer Andreas “Palle” Wettmark—dip into slow-burning dramas, revealing a new type of bareness along the way.
Milner’s quest for love is blocked at seemingly every turn on III. “You don’t even see it in my eyes/You are all that I want,” she sings on opener “Vienna,” her voice swelling with yearning before revealing a harsh reality: “But now you’re dead/You’re gone!” On the album’s low-key highlight “Leda,” Milner struggles with a lover who ignores her (and everything else), but chooses not to take it personally. And on the Roy Orbison indebted “In My Dreams,” love is only possible as a fantasy. Yet in typical Makthaverskan fashion, all the crashing hi-hats, fuzz pedals, and soaring hooks make heartbreak sound triumphant. These are songs of survival, not misery.
Perhaps because Milner spends so much of III in the grips of factors beyond her control, her reclamation on the wildly carnal “Witness” feels like a gigantic triumph. First released as a single two years ago, the song is a radical departure for Makthaverskan, a hardcore call to the pit. While the band indulge in a self-described Iron Maiden moment, Milner relishes a foe’s eventual downfall, her voice a dramatic, determined foil to the band’s pummeling onslaught.
Penultimate track “Comfort,” meanwhile, is an ominous post-punk number that feels like a follow-up to II’s “No Mercy,” which became a rallying cry of sorts due to its empowered chorus: “Fuck you for fucking me when I was 17.” Here, Milner guides someone else through a shared trauma as best she can: “His mistakes took our youth/… To ease the pain what can I say, it will never go away.” Returning to the idea that a song’s emotional pulse should be immediate, the song’s haunting guitar riff communicates as much pain as the anguished chorus. Every note is felt.
