Direction Sweden with 'The Quill' which continues their adventure started more than thirty years ago and whose last live I reviewed 'Live, New, Borrowed, Blue' in 2022 and whose last studio recording 'Earthise' dates from 2021. At a frequency of approximately one album every 3 years and despite the problems that disrupted the group at the end of the 2000s, 2024 sees the release of 'Wheel of Illusion' which is their 11th opus. We don't change a winning team and we find this classic hard rock with saturated guitars and a very heavy sound reminiscent of the bands of the 70s of this style with 'Black Sabbath' which immediately comes to mind and from the start , the eponymous track, sends out a good blast of hard rock, well rhythmic and catchy, which gives an irresistible desire to headbang (see the video above). If you are already won over by this start and in this very punchy style, you can continue with 'We Burn' which is made of the same wood (see the video here) and you can go there with your eyes closed with 'Elephant Head' (see the video here) but also with 'The Last Thing or Remember' with its rhythm section which alternates different tempos between verses and choruses. And when the atmosphere becomes calmer, 'Rainmaker' and 'Sweet Mass Confusion' offer us very heavy mid-tempos that 'Black Sabbath', then, 'L.I.B.E.R.' would not have denied. also shows an immediate hook with its well-marked rhythm and 'Hawk & Hounds' adds a layer of psychedelia by taking us back to the beginnings of hard rock at the end of the sixties. The album ends with the 7 minutes of 'Wild Mustang ' which takes us one last time into the time machine and which gently makes us sway to a hypnotic rhythm and whose second part is made up of a very beautiful guitar solo with melodic lines reminiscent of a certain 'Comfortably Number'.In summary, with this latest album from the Swedes of 'The Quill', we immerse ourselves not without nostalgia but with great joy in authentic and very effective hard rock and this 'Wheel of Illusion' (which does not is not an illusion!), is recommended to all those who were nourished by the sound of the first hard rock groups throughout the decade of the seventies...
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