Opener ‘The Cardinal Ride’ invites us to join Besvärjelsen on “a rollercoaster of the seven deadly sins!”; an enticing summons indeed! So, roll up, roll up, for this is a trip worth embarking on as the Swedish occult retro psych stoner doom grungers (and a whole lot more) open wide their Atlas (Magnetic Eye Records) and find their niche on the world map.
The ride in question kicks things off with a smoking blend of Kyuss groove, Stone Roses swagger, Avatarium sepia-tinted feels, some driving fuzz and a chorus that is digging into your brain for the long-haul, while second-track ‘Acheron’ plays with tempo and pace, slowing things down initially before expanding out with a cool guitar harmony midsection and a catchy dirgy chorus, Lea Amling Alazam’s chorus lines, as with later track ‘Digerliden’, reminiscent of the melodies that decorated Myrkur’s Mareridt.
The diversity of Alazam’s voice – one moment vulnerable and full of soul, the next comfortable and powerful, leading a driving, fuzzy uptempo – is at home with the variety of the music that Besvärjelsen are keen to expound. From the doom-crush of ‘Obscured By Darkness’, to the Heavy Metal stomp of ‘House of the Burning Light’ (a clear highlight with another cool refrain of a chorus), and on to the country-grunge melancholia of ‘Clouds’, a fuck-you-to-the-ex that allows Alazam to showcase the coolest of blues-meets-pop timbres, the quintet have an uncanny knack of knowing the right licks, notes, hooks and catches, and when to play with the dynamics, or when to play it straight.
While not everything sparkles, and there is a feel that epic closer ‘Divided Ends’ could have soared and that this is the one that comes before the one, there are no moments that don’t work. Potential can be an intangible concept when it comes to music, and more often than not, particularly in the less mainstream musical world we inhabit, it is a feeling that the strands of the disparate ingredients of something magickal are being tugged and weaved together; the knowledge that the anticipation of a powerful spell is beginning to swirl and uncontrollable energy will course into the art. What may have previously been a twitch or an inkling, is now a pulsing tingle, and it is impossible to not feel the power of the conjuring that spills out at regular intervals in Atlas and that will surely explode on their next one.
All of this is captured with an apt and very appropriate retro-swashed production by Karl Daniel Lidén, and the atmosphere and overall impression of the album is one of timelessness… it doesn’t feel of this time, yet neither does it sound dated, pastiche or a rehash of old ideas. Besvärjelsen’s second offering is a bold and confident take, using new brush-strokes while paying reverence to those styles that came before, creating something very promising indeed.
Buy the album here: https://besvarjelsen.bandcamp.com/album/atlas
7 / 10
STEVE TOVEY