Reviews: Myrkur, Rival Sons, Ozric Tentacles, Sylvatica (Reviews By Matt Bladen)

 Myrkur – Spine (Relapse Records)

Having indulged more in the Scandinavian folk songwriting tradition on her last album, Amalie Bruun, aka Myrkur returns with the third chapter of music that blends the light and heavy. A multi-instrumentalist, Myrkur has always been an act that incites opinion, she has battled internet trolls who consider her not to be cvlt, posting vile things online which would be enough for most people to throw in the towel. However after the birth of her child, the multi-sensory set of emotions that come with that and deeper understanding to the folk traditions around the world, Bruun went back to the heavier side of music, although with no restraint, meaning that for every triumphal blast beat on Valkyriernes Sang, there’s the reflective, ghostly title track or the oscillation synthwave of Mothlike. 

The sense of claustrophobia heard in all the tracks here, the production of Randall Dunn bringing it your ears as a slightly muffled, introspective sound that means you have to play it louder to hear the instrumental nuance, while it means that tracks such as Devil In The Detail is much more effective, the piano driven first part carried by spectral vocals that move into dazzling extreme metal ferocity. Essentially it’s a headphone album, allowing you connect physically and emotionally with the music, be it the folk or metallic parts. On Spine the black metal that was so pronounced on M and Mareridt albums has been reduced, giving way to a wider metal sound, the speedy tremolo picking and blasts are still there, but so are traditional metal twin harmonies, electronic music, gothic overtones, post-rock gazing and most importantly a defiance to be anything that Bruun has been labelled as. 

With multiple listens Myrkur’s fourth album stands as a record of where she stands musically right now, everything before has led to here and this multi-faceted, densely layered musical exploration of the human psyche post motherhood is affecting, exhilarating and uncompromising. Multiple listens are suggested but Myrkur’s return should be heralded. 9/10

Rival Sons - Lightbringer (Parlaphone Records)

 

When Darkfighter was released in June it was the first part of a double album release this year. So as the nights draw in Lightbringer comes to show the way. Recorded at the same time, Darkfighter was a stripped back classic rock record, the kind Rival Sons are now used to making, slickly produced, played with virtuosity and coming from the heart like all Rival Son's music, though these two records deal with more introspective and personal lyrics than any previous effort.

Darkfighter was the reinvention of what Rival Sons were as a band, connecting their past to their present, Lightbringer on the other hand is their redefining of what the band can be, their present moving towards their future, both albums used to cement the band for what they are in 2023. Darkfighter pulled from folk and Americana, Lightbringer does the same but also from prog on the smouldering Darkfighter and the 60's British invasion on Sweet Life.

While the former goes down to a darker place than its moody namesake album the latter is the first upbeat number on either album, the riffs of Scott Holliday, choppy and bright while Jay Buchanan wails like the bluesmen of old. It's the blues that has always been the central point for Rival Sons' popularity but with these two recent records they have delved deeper, gone further to when blues music, gospel music and folk traditions were songs of liberation and protest, a catharsis from the horrors of the the world.

So too then are the songs on Lightbringer with the Zep fuzz of Mercy, the emotion of Redemption and the folksy Before The Fire all keeping an urgency as Mosaic closes the record with a track built around loud and quietness the understated rhythms of David Beste and Michael Miley building into that passionate chorus..

Stripped back to their skeletal form, Lightbringer and Darkfighter are Rival Sons laid bare, honest, open and ready for whatever comes next. 8/10

Ozric Tentacles – Lotus Unfolding (Kscope)

Formed during the solstice at Stonehenge Free Festival 1983, Ozric Tentacles have become one of the most revered psych/dance/prog bands around. Countless visits to Glastonbury, along with dance, rock, psych and prog festivals, they will hit the road with labelmates Gong in November and March but before then you all have time to take onboard their new studio record Lotus Unfolding. 

It’s the 23rd outing for the band, if you include the cassette only releases and it again sees, band founder/multi-instrumentalist Ed Wynne leading his psychonauts through 6 tracks of trippy soundscapes. Storm In A Teacup is a percussive opener formed on top of oscillating modular synths of Silas Wynne and probably Ed too, the bass of Brandi Wynne (and Ed again) throbbing below the surface as screaming guitar solos are changed into a bouncy middle section, the pace created kept by Tim Wallander with added percussion from Paul Hankin. 

All Ozric albums are musical journeys, so with Storm In A Teacup the initial blast off we head into the cosmic realms with the pulsating Deep Blue Shade, the dance music influence writ large as we shift into the title track which is heavily inspired by world music, the flute of Saskia Maxwell used well to establish are rainforest atmosphere. 

The musicianship is top drawer as normal, the 6 instrumental excursions here never suffering from a lack of vocals, Crumplepenny increasing volume and forcefulness as it goes through the 10 minute movement, adding Middle Eastern flavour to the sublime guitar playing, tribalistic drumming and swelling synth, the rhythmic percussion also carrying Green Incantation which shows of some slinky acoustic playing. 

Meditative, ethereal, cosmic but tied to a human endeavour, Ozric Tentacles wrap themselves around your brain and leave you dancing in the rain with tea spiked with peyote, blissful and open-minded. 9/10

Sylvatica - Cadaver Synod (Mighty Music)

Melodic death metal inspired by the bloodiest/ideologically corrupt period in history, the Middle Ages, is what Danish band Sylvatica strive for on their third album Cadaver Synod. Forgoing the huge cinematic production of their previous two records, here they attempt something rawer the melodic flourishes brought by some clean guitars but mainly Hammond organs, synths, church organs and chants (see Song Of The Leper). It means that Cadaver Synod brings about a sound of Ghost playing with Wintersun (Papa Poltergeist), Candlemass with Cradle Of Filth (Titivillus), 70’s doom amalgamating with 2000’s melodeath (Pope Innocent VIII). It’s interesting concept that is brought about with technical precision and a commitment to making an entertaining listen.

Heavily reliant on guitars from, Jarden Schlesinger and Christian Christiansen, their dual attack riffs and solos peel off brilliantly across the record, as they have on the last two but on this third album, there’s a broader soundscape at play, just check out the eerie Scapegoat which features tonnes of Theremin, backed by the stomping rhythm section of Thomas Haxen (bass) and Jacques Harm Brandt Hauge (drums), things getting unhinged on In The Eyes Of God which takes us back to the melodeath assault, Schlesinger’s growls barking the heretical lyrics before the acoustics weigh in. A record that brings a broad soundscape but doesn’t sacrifice their roots. If Medieval metal seems like your bag then I can’t recommend Cadaver Synod enough. 8/10