(c) Fuzzorama Records
Patience is a virtue for fans of Skraeckoedlan is indispensable. Their last album is already more than five years old, with a short break in between, followed by a lot of concerts, the odd single and the line-up expansion into a quartet. For the successor, they wanted to condense and intensify the musical experience once again, making it a bit more proggy and psychedelic, without sacrificing the powerful stoner and fuzz riffs. This courageous mission accomplished „Vermillion Sky“ with impressive ease.
The quartet shows its full class right from the start, when “Starsquatch” spreads its wings after an extended intro and packs pretty much everything that Skraeckoedlan is all about into eight multi-layered minutes. The fact that there is a clear penchant for proggy, spacey sounds cannot be ignored, accompanied by massive guitars and a fat rhythm section that alternately drives and slows down the cerebral action. Subtle space rock breaks, martial fuzz inserts and expansive stoner prog give each other the imaginary handle before the no less brilliant finale takes off and appropriately concludes one of the best songs in the band’s already illustrious history.
But of course that’s not all, because even comparatively ‘short’ tracks like “Night Satan” reveal an incredible amount of quality on all levels. Sympathetic muscle flexing, brisk uptempo parts and a detached foray through the nocturnal desert spit out a wealth of rousing riffs. “Mysteria” also has enough of that and strives for heaviness with surprisingly aggressive vocals that push more towards Mastodon than ever. Even the hypnotizing pause is incredibly good. And then there is “Astronautilus”, the bearish bouncer who pushes the stoner space prog towards perfection and rounds it off with an astonishingly classic, sensitive guitar solo.
Evolution instead of revolution, this simple and ingenious recipe once again proves to be highly effective in the case of Skraeckoedlan. They consistently venture into their own sound, expand it and consolidate the already strong stoner fuzz qualities with growing enthusiasm. “Vermillion Sky” is even more proggy, even more psychedelic and even more spacey, but at the same time it rocks incredibly hard and is impossible to ignore even with the most complex song structures. This feat is incredibly good for the Northern Lights and brings us a huge step closer to the magnificence beyond all doubt.
Rating: 8/10
Available from: March 29, 2024
Available via: Fuzzorama Records (Bertus)
Website: www.skraeckoedlan.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/SKRAECKOEDLAN
Category: Magazin, Reviews