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Released on May 18, 2015 via Nuclear Blast Records
Hailing from the land of Ice, the land of glaciers and volcanoes, the home of some of the strangest and most intriguing music ever created, is a band that defies preconceived notions of what it means to be musicians from Iceland. My introduction to Iceland’s music scene was through Björk and Sigur Rós, two of the most alien-like entities in the modern music world. Sigur Rós in particular have been a constant source of wonderment and enjoyment as they have remained one of my favorite bands of all time. In recent years the metal scene has grown in popularity and perpetuated the stereotype that Icelandic music is as varied and other worldly as its landscape. Bands like Sólstafir, Wormlust, and Sinmara have crafted incredibly diverse, beautiful, and intense metal. When it comes to young upstarts, The Vintage Caravan, the assumption of oddity is left behind and a feeling of familiarity is finally established.
With their second album for Nuclear Blast, The Vintage Caravan wastes no time grabbing the listener with their brand of metal infused, classic rock. The first song, ‘Last Day of Light’ builds with the kind of abandon reminiscent of a runaway tidal wave. There are surf rock sounds peppered throughout the album and this excursion into the sea ends with a brilliantly orchestrated, yet simple, breakdown. There are familiar sounds everywhere on this album, most of which are musically justifiable.
‘Monolith’, the second song, starts off with a riff that could have come straight off of Superunknown. ‘Babylon’, ‘Eclipsed’, and ‘Crazy Horses’ have as much roots in Deep Purple as they do in Rage Against the Machine, while ‘Shaken Beliefs’ is very akin to something one might find on A Crow Left of the Murder. Even the lead singer, Oskar Logi, sounds like a mixture between Brandon Boyd and Chris Robinson and his voice holds all of the assuredness of a seasoned veteran at the peak of their abilities. While all of the songs flow with the ease and effortlessness of a Týr album, with the musicians making it sound easy, the songs hold their own personalities, their influences do not outshine their own individuality.
The rhythm section of the band is energetic, powerful, and balanced perfectly in the mix, while the guitars charge in the front and drive the melodic beauty of the songs. The production on the album is terrific and only further exemplifies the technical abilities of the musicians, these guys can play, and considering how young they are, their futures should be plenty bright. Now, where the album falters rests in places that can be improved upon. First, the lyrics tend to be slightly generic, as well as cliche at moments, which at first doesn’t seem like something that would effect an album residing in a genre that puts more focus on grooves and solos than thought-provoking and insightful lyrical themes. Over time and after repeated listens, however, the lyrics become more difficult to bear. Lastly, the solos, while expertly played, seem to lose focus only seconds into their departure leaving them less memorable than they should be. Overall, the album is a wonderful excursion into 70’s and 90’s hard rock and metal, full of energy, admiration, and confidence. Whether or not they have arrived or are still sailing a voyage, The Vintage Caravan’s Arrival is one hell of a journey.
