Een eerste single in aanloop naar het nieuwe album en ik word opnieuw op de proef gesteld. Zoals ik tijdens mijn recensie van The Faceless King herhaalde, ben ik nooit echt fan geweest van de zang van Martin Garner, die ook nu vrij klagend overkomt. Dat valt nog eens extra op omdat de band hier héél erg laid back tewerk gaat. Er wordt vooral op sfeer gemikt en in dat opzicht slagen ze voor de volle 100%. Keys vormen de onderbouw, de gitaar rifft er spaarzaam doorheen waardoor er veel ruimte wordt gelaten. Die ruimte wordt dan deels erg knap ingevuld door cello en viool, maar ook door een extra vocale bijdrage.
Uiteindelijk moet ik toegeven dat ik steeds meer gewoon wordt aan de stem van Garner en ik zo met volle teugen kan genieten van deze opnieuw verhalende uitvoering.
Vessel verschijnt op 17 mei 2024 via Ripple Music.
Lees
The opening track of Vitskär Süden’s new album "Vessel" begins with plaintive vocals and a solitary guitar. Hear our plea. Show your presence… "It’s essentially a prayer to the Elder Gods,” says vocalist Martin Garner. “‘Save us from ourselves.’ It’s stark. I'm exposed in a way I haven’t been vocally in our music before, but I wanted the despair of the text to come through. As the song progresses, this character who’s been begging for salvation begins to call for fire, wrath and revenge, and the build the guys created musically really illustrates that.”
The band’s first foray into live strings, “Vengeance Speaks” offers cellist Max Mueller and violinist Emily Moore adding heft and scope, as well as a soaring vocal solo by Kristi Merideth. “With dark angels descending from the heavens lyrically we needed a female voice in play to paint the full picture,” says Garner. “Kristi improvised this amazing solo in a couple of takes. We all heard it for the first time when we were mixing the record in Austin and our jaws were on the floor.”
Vitskär Süden is a cross-genre rock band that merges evocative storytelling with rich sonic texture, fusing elements of neo-psych, space, doom and progressive rock. The Los Angeles-based quartet’s material often features weird fiction sensibilities and feels cinematic in scope – understandable given the fact that most of the members met through filmmaking before bonding musically.The band appeared on the radar in 2020 with a self-titled, cosmic horror-inspired debut Metal Hammer Magazine described as offering “epic soundscapes as soothing as a blood-red Californian sunset”. The album landed at #17 on Doom Charts’ best of the year list. In 2022 the band signed with Ripple Music and released "The Faceless King", a dark fantasy concept album weaving the origin story of the record’s antihero namesake. Special editions of the vinyl release were accompanied by an RPG module written by band members and expanding on the album’s story.
Their latest record "Vessel" sees the band pushing genre boundaries yet again, experimenting with additional progressive elements while transporting listeners through seven distinctive soundscapes. Vitskär Süden continues their ascent as one of the most unique musical voices on the underground rock scene.
Vitskär Süden is:
Vitskär Süden is: Martin Garner - Bass/Vocals Julian Goldberger - Guitar/Synths Christopher Martin - Drums TJ Webber - Guitar
