House of Aquarius, The World through Bloodred Eyes: Out of the Hands
Originally released in 2003, Swedish heavy rockers House of Aquarius‘ lone full-length, The World through Bloodred Eyes, is given new life on LP thanks to Germany’s Electric Magic Records. The Norrköping four-piece — from which vocalist Mikael Popovic and guitarist Thomas Eriksson went on to found Year of the Goat — fit well alongside Mammoth Volume and Dead Man in the category of underrated Swedish riffers, with a sound dense and bluesy an album that runs even a decade later between groove-laden and viciously catchy. Popovic‘s vocals are a standout element, stonerly without much posturing, and the rhythm section of bassist Lare Hultman and drummer Jens Gustavsson fill out an organic low end without pulling the focus away from Eriksson‘s prevalent cyclical modus. Whatever the members have gone on to do since, the 48 minutes of The World through Bloodred Eyes shows them as having been considerably adept at a more straightforward stoner rock style, and while the album might not have garnered as much acclaim as the output of some of their countrymen over the years — be it Dozer or Witchcraft — the fact remains that House of Aquarius at least belong in the discussion. Thus does the Electric Magic reissue live up to the standard: Does this album deserve another look? One doesn’t have to be even fully through “Lord of Vermin,” the first of the LP’s nine tracks, to understand why the answer is yes. A softer lead guitar line at the halfway point calls back to early Suplecs smooth fuzz even as House of Aquarius build to individualized grit and transition easily between their parts, resulting in an immediately palpable flow that stays strong as one cut progresses to the next.
Also notable is the fact that for being a decade old, The World through Bloodred Eyes sounds no more dated now than it was supposed to then. I suspect that’s a discovery that will remain prevalent for some time with reissues such as this — that records put to tape with a classically-influenced production didn’t sound of their day then so they don’t necessarily harken to it now — but it works to House of Aquarius‘ favor, and as the swampy wah of “Rock ‘n’ Roll Grandma and the KKK” toys with a Southern heavy influence and Popovic puts on a touch of accent, there’s nothing in the tonality or presentation that makes me think The World through Bloodred Eyes couldn’t have been recorded a few months back instead of a decade ago. The two-cycle build of “Fear No Evil,” starting soft, getting heavy and repeating, does little to contradict this assertion, and while one can hear shades of Graveyard‘s first record in some of the quieter guitar progression if one strains to do so, neither are House of Aquarius so fully given to a retro aesthetic as to sacrifice tonal thickness. Hultman‘s bass is rich and warm, but can come on as weighted as one could reasonably ask, and along with Eriksson‘s chug in the second half of “Fear No Evil,” it’s the bass providing the foundation for Popovic‘s soulful exclamations. “Azteroid Zombiez” is memorable mostly for its faster thrust and backing vocals in the chorus, but it provides a change from the bluesy feel, which resumes partway with “Cosmic Weed,” as lines like “Lick my lizard” and “Slap me silly” assure the listener that House of Aquarius aren’t about to take themselves too seriously, and in case none of that was enough to wake you up, they end with an alarm clock going off, jolting the blood as the riff of the longer “Unholy” revives stonerly burl with a winding but easy-to-follow instrumental hook.
The intro doesn’t last, and gradually, “Unholy” slows to a Down-esque Southern crawl, Popvic making the chorus a highlight of the album as a subtle instrumental build mounts behind, culminating in the song’s second half with the initial pace resumed after five minutes into the total 6:40 and House of Aquarius‘ full tonal depth brought to the fore in Orange Goblin thrust that stands in contrast to the lurching melancholy preceding. That gives the track a sense of apex that, because of its place in the tracklisting, also feels like the peak of The World through Bloodred Eyes as well, but “Apes & Blood” keeps the momentum forward with a thickened shuffle that boasts some choice lines from Hultman. Especially toward the end of the track, the low end is leading the charge and it’s not quite a wash of tone, but it’s not far off, the guitars taking their place at the head for an ending not nearly as grand as the cut before, but still enough to precede the classic heavy rocking “Nuclear Child,” which introduces a touch of psychedelia to the guitar while the bass fills spaces between riff cycles and Gustavsson stops and starts with fluidity matching the watery effects Popovic‘s vocals. By and large, the second half of “Nuclear Child” is more subdued, but they bring back the earlier push at the end to give it some context and payoff. This leaves closer “Out of the Hands of Your God” the task of summarizing the bluesy breadth of the record before it — a job that apparently takes about eight and a half minutes. Really, it’s just about all there, but what leaves the most lasting impression of all is the delivery of the title line in the chorus and the languid bounce of the rhythm behind it. The wah blues persist, and there’s a heavy/stoner psychedelic sensibility at play at well, but after hearing “Out of the Hands of Your God,” it seems most of all a shame that House of Aquarius never followed up The World through Bloodred Eyes, as there was some clear potential in their approach and it would’ve been fascinating to hear where they went with it. Such assertions are easy (and fun!) to make when it comes to reissues, but the fact remains that in a country that has had probably the most contributions to underground heavy per capita in the world, House of Aquarius could have become a standout. Or they could’ve never done anything else as a band, and that seems to be the way they went. That doesn’t change the appeal of The World through Bloodred Eyes, and neither has that appeal been diminished by the decade since the record was first released.
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Tags: Electric Magic Records, House of Aquarius, House of Aquarius The World through Bloodred Eyes, Norrköping, Sweden, The World through Bloodred Eyes
