The Lancasters are an Italian band with an affinity for all the stuff you love from the late 60s and early 70s. You know the names. These guys bring their flare to that wonderful era, blending pieces of all of your favorites from classic rock radio and beyond on their new record, The World Of Mistral. Are the tracks on the record re-treads from a long-gone era or do the songs on The World Of Mistral freshen up what dad was listening to and add their modern twist?
The latter is the case, as this record is a trip, both nostalgically and one for your head. The World Of Mistral starts off sounding like Queens Of The Stone Age on the opener, Sons Of The Sin, which doubles as what I could imagine their intro when starting a live show would be. It’s a great way to grab the listener, as the record heads into funky Pink Floyd territory soon after, with great results, on The One Who Sees In The Dark. Their use of keys and harmonies really highlights the sound the Lancasters bring. Rules Of The Road leverages a late 60s psych pop vibe and pulls it off beautifully.
I don’t get to call out the Kinks very much in my reviews, but that vibe comes with the track Crown’s Fayre, maybe something from Village Green. I can’t help but to hear more Pink Floyd in Stone Of Whims, maybe a distant cousin of Have A Cigar. This one is trippy goodness. Another name I have never mention in a review is Harry Nillson, but here we go in the form of The Blue Flower Lead To Nowhere. Maybe a Nilsson/Donovan collaboration.
You have to include a Zeppelin stop on a record like this, so Hildegarde makes sense, but maybe if Zeppelin was channelling Grand Funk. Or for a more contemporary comparison, The Golden Grass. An upbeat Kicks-inspired quick one is what you get with Golden Ark, while that Golden Grass comparison continues with Mirror Gaze. The closer, the eight-plus minute Girl In The Sun, is this gigantic psych pop epic that David Gilmour would be proud of, until Jimmy Page shows up, and is a great way to close out the record. 8/10
Heretoir - Solastalgia (AOP Records) [Matt Bladen]
It's no secret I love a bit of post metal, especially the kind where black metal is united with shoegaze under that blackgaze term that is used to describe the likes of Alcest, Harakiri For The Sky and even Deafheaven. Heretoir fit the mould perfectly, they bring acoustic bliss on a track such as Heart Of December, while Burial has euphoric ambience colliding with cathartic screams. Their blackgaze sound expanded by intense modern metal grooves and emo-like rage.
The album surrounds our "alienation from this planet", built on collective emotions and how we as a species fit in to this world, this is an album where Heretoir are brimming with empathy, much of their heart and soul derived from David Conrad's personality and musical vision, the band have evolved from being a solo venture into a trio that features Matthias Settele (guitars/bass/flute/vocals) and Nils Groth (drums/vocals), this version of the band producing the best music in their career.
Their last album Nightsphere came two years ago and Solastalgia elevates the emotional weight and musical dexterity of Heretoir, the title track for instance builds on blackgaze for a cinematic expanse, before The Same Hell MMXXV dreamily slows the momentum with breathy, haunting beauty as it dives into a In Flames cover Metaphor which is a mirror of the melodeath opening of The Ashen Falls with Season Of Grief taking some Opeth influence.
Solastalgia brings more skill and musical brilliance from Heretoir, this German band are impressive in their balance act of the extreme metal genres, blackgaze fans rejoice as it's a brilliant fourth album. 9/10
Vianova - HIT IT! (Arising Empire) [Matt Bladen]
Surprise! Germany party metal band Vianova drop their debut album without any fanfare or warning, building on their recent viral success with some actual tangibles. I'm not viral, or an influencer and I have no intention to be but I have an opinion and it's time to share what I think of this debut album.
Well if you're fan of bands like Don Broco, Panic! At The Disco and those other bands that amalgamate nu-metal, emo, post-hardcore and metalcore then you'll love this record as it's right of its time, a modern album of metal that puts 80's synths with Djenty start stop grooves, jazz passes with crushing breakdowns, ambient moments and soulful pop. A song such as Wheel Of Fortune smashing this all together, while Más Rápido brings a Latin rhythm to it, while elsewhere there's funk.
Now these songs are massively layered there's often too much going on, the band experimenting with as much as possible and not giving a damn about the results. As long as it continues to propel the lore around the band. This is where we go back to that influencer thing, Vianova are not just a band they are fully fledged multimedia moguls curating everything from their online presence and visuals to their conceptual threads in their songs.
While this isn't usually my music I can understand that it will appeal to a lot of people, especially the youngsters. 7/10
Vintage Caravan - Portals (Napalm Records) [Rich Piva]
The Vintage Caravan is a band that I should like more than I do, but I really never go back to their records after I listen the first time or two. I don’t hate their stuff, but nothing really sticks with me for whatever reason. They are skilled musicians who play cool, stoner-ish psych rock that I should be blasting on the regular. In reality, however, I don’t. The same goes for their new record, Portals.
Again, on the surface, I should be all in, but I am not. I mean Mikael Åkerfeldt guest stars on the opener, Philosopher, but even that track, which is the best of the 17(!) tracks, is not enough for me to care. Tracks like Current just bore me, and a song like Here You Come Again is a rinse and repeat. It is also an hour, which is about 30 minutes too long. Again, please don’t think I hate this, I am just bored. I know there are people who love this band and this album, I am just one of those people.
So yeah, The Vintage Caravan have a new record, Portals, and it is fine. I get why people dig it, but I just don’t find anything all that interesting compare to the hundreds of other bands that are contemporaries of them today. I am a sucker for the stuff that The Lancasters bring on The World Of Mistral. Psych rock with pop sensibilities channelling the late 60s/early70s with a ton of organ and great harmonies. This record is a wonderful journey back in time and then home again. 5/10
Heretoir - Solastalgia (AOP Records) [Matt Bladen]
It's no secret I love a bit of post metal, especially the kind where black metal is united with shoegaze under that blackgaze term that is used to describe the likes of Alcest, Harakiri For The Sky and even Deafheaven. Heretoir fit the mould perfectly, they bring acoustic bliss on a track such as Heart Of December, while Burial has euphoric ambience colliding with cathartic screams. Their blackgaze sound expanded by intense modern metal grooves and emo-like rage.
The album surrounds our "alienation from this planet", built on collective emotions and how we as a species fit in to this world, this is an album where Heretoir are brimming with empathy, much of their heart and soul derived from David Conrad's personality and musical vision, the band have evolved from being a solo venture into a trio that features Matthias Settele (guitars/bass/flute/vocals) and Nils Groth (drums/vocals), this version of the band producing the best music in their career.
Their last album Nightsphere came two years ago and Solastalgia elevates the emotional weight and musical dexterity of Heretoir, the title track for instance builds on blackgaze for a cinematic expanse, before The Same Hell MMXXV dreamily slows the momentum with breathy, haunting beauty as it dives into a In Flames cover Metaphor which is a mirror of the melodeath opening of The Ashen Falls with Season Of Grief taking some Opeth influence.
Solastalgia brings more skill and musical brilliance from Heretoir, this German band are impressive in their balance act of the extreme metal genres, blackgaze fans rejoice as it's a brilliant fourth album. 9/10
Vianova - HIT IT! (Arising Empire) [Matt Bladen]
Surprise! Germany party metal band Vianova drop their debut album without any fanfare or warning, building on their recent viral success with some actual tangibles. I'm not viral, or an influencer and I have no intention to be but I have an opinion and it's time to share what I think of this debut album.
Well if you're fan of bands like Don Broco, Panic! At The Disco and those other bands that amalgamate nu-metal, emo, post-hardcore and metalcore then you'll love this record as it's right of its time, a modern album of metal that puts 80's synths with Djenty start stop grooves, jazz passes with crushing breakdowns, ambient moments and soulful pop. A song such as Wheel Of Fortune smashing this all together, while Más Rápido brings a Latin rhythm to it, while elsewhere there's funk.
Now these songs are massively layered there's often too much going on, the band experimenting with as much as possible and not giving a damn about the results. As long as it continues to propel the lore around the band. This is where we go back to that influencer thing, Vianova are not just a band they are fully fledged multimedia moguls curating everything from their online presence and visuals to their conceptual threads in their songs.
While this isn't usually my music I can understand that it will appeal to a lot of people, especially the youngsters. 7/10
Vintage Caravan - Portals (Napalm Records) [Rich Piva]
The Vintage Caravan is a band that I should like more than I do, but I really never go back to their records after I listen the first time or two. I don’t hate their stuff, but nothing really sticks with me for whatever reason. They are skilled musicians who play cool, stoner-ish psych rock that I should be blasting on the regular. In reality, however, I don’t. The same goes for their new record, Portals.
Again, on the surface, I should be all in, but I am not. I mean Mikael Åkerfeldt guest stars on the opener, Philosopher, but even that track, which is the best of the 17(!) tracks, is not enough for me to care. Tracks like Current just bore me, and a song like Here You Come Again is a rinse and repeat. It is also an hour, which is about 30 minutes too long. Again, please don’t think I hate this, I am just bored. I know there are people who love this band and this album, I am just one of those people.
So yeah, The Vintage Caravan have a new record, Portals, and it is fine. I get why people dig it, but I just don’t find anything all that interesting compare to the hundreds of other bands that are contemporaries of them today. I am a sucker for the stuff that The Lancasters bring on The World Of Mistral. Psych rock with pop sensibilities channelling the late 60s/early70s with a ton of organ and great harmonies. This record is a wonderful journey back in time and then home again. 5/10
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