The Norwegians of 'Motopsycho' who, after 'The All is One' dating from August 2020, release 'Kingdom of Oblivion' which has just seen the light of day in mid-April 2021, and what an album, because it totals 70 minutes of listening with 12 compositions that re-embark on the time machine at a period when the 'Black Sabbath' and 'Led Zeppelin' were at the top of the hard-rock billboards, all of this with sounds of this time but with a modern production.
'The Waning Parts 1 & 2' opens the ball with a typical composition of a powerful hard-rock with saturated riffs from another era and a lively rhythm section with a deep bass line, the second part bringing a haunting psychedelic side always anchored in the seventies, then, 'Kingdom Of Oblivion', with a slower tempo, continues to offer us heavy and captivating riffs and vocals with fairly linear melodic lines. Change of tone with 'Lady May' which is much calmer in an acoustic folk style with an accompaniment of guitar arpeggios, then, 'The United Debased' returns to the heavy vintage style and unrolls a rather dark melody, close to doom, 'The Watcher' which follows, being an instrumental not necessarily essential bringing us back to the psychedelic experiments of the beginning of the progressive. 'Dreamkiller' continues in this dark and vintage atmosphere with the electric instruments which take over after a hovering acoustic introduction, the title falling abruptly and ending as it started. New change of atmosphere with the short instrumental 'Atet' which is a quiet acoustic, then, 'At Empire's End' is for me the masterpiece of the album which puts the most forward the progressive side of the group with changes of intensity that takes us back to the end of the 60s with this mixture of bewitching psychedelics and the beginnings of a more energetic rock that we will later call hard-rock. It's still a complete change of style with 'The Hunt', much lighter acoustics with beautiful vocal harmonies reminiscent of formations like 'Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young' and the short acoustic 'After The Fair' then serves as a interlude for the next long development 'The Transmutation Of Cosmoctopus Lurker' which, again, offers us a heavy hard-rock filled with psychedelic effects brought by the sounds of saturated guitars and vintage keyboards with a skilful mix between 'Black Sabbath' and the 'Floyds', the last track 'Cormorant' gently bringing us back to reality with a soft and airy instrumental whose melody delicately caresses our eardrums.
In summary, the Norwegians of 'Motorpsycho' continue in this style so characteristic bringing a certain nostalgia of the pioneers of the progressive which destines 'Kingdom of Oblivion' to a public who bathed in this time and which particularly liked groups who have muscled psychedelic rock to become hard rock... | |