Greenleaf, Hear the Rivers: Sweet is the Sound
The transformation Sweden’s Greenleaf have undergone within the last five-to-six years is not to be understated. After years as a side-project for founding guitarist Tommi Holappa from his main outfit, Dozer, and a modus operandi that involved recording with guests, the idea of a stable Greenleaf lineup began to surface really with 2012’s Nest of Vipers (review here), which was their first release after Dozer went to ground following their own 2008 LP. At that point, Holappa had two fellow Dozer bandmates along with him in first-guitarist-then-bassist Johan Rockner and drummer Olle Mårthans, and it was Greenleaf‘s second album to be fronted by Oskar Cedermalm following 2007’s Agents of Ahriman (vinyl reissue review here).
It would also be the last, as Cedermalm left to concentrate on his own main outfit, the now-defunct Truckfighters. Instead of going into hibernation, however, Holappa revamped Greenleaf with the idea of becoming a full touring act, and in just two years’ time, the band released 2014’s Trails and Passes (review here) as Holappa‘s first collaboration with vocalist Arvid Hällagård. It was a transitional record in its sound, very much settling into the chemistry between the founding member and central songwriter and the charismatic newcomer frontman. Greenleaf hit the road hard, signed to Napalm Records, and further established themselves as one of the European heavy underground’s most essential acts.
Their sound continued to evolve to a more modern execution than was found on their classic-style earlier offerings: 2007’s Agents of Ahriman (vinyl reissue review here), 2003’s Secret Alphabets (discussed here), 2001’s Revolution Rock (discussed here) and their 2000 self-titled EP (someday it will be mine), and by the time they got to 2016’s Rise Above the Meadow (review here), they were at last the crucial band they always had the potential to be. After 18 years of existence and five years-plus of working a heavy touring circuit, Hear the Rivers is the first Greenleaf album with what might be considered the stable lineup.
Of course, one uses those words cautiously for a group who’ve been through so many changes and so many different players in the past, but bassist Hans Fröhlich came aboard after the recording of Rise Above the Meadow, and as with Hällagård, this is drummer Sebastian Olsson‘s third album with Greenleaf, having also joined for Trails and Passes. This is Greenleaf, so really anything can change at any time save a departure from Holappa himself, but the idea of Hear the Rivers finally being Greenleaf presenting the outfit that Holappa started to build on Trails and Passes resonates further in the 10 songs included on this album.
This can be heard in barn-burners like “Oh My Bones” or the stomp of “Good Ol’ Goat” or the subdued blues of sneaky highlight “We are the Pawns” and the drift in eight-minute closer “The Rivers Lullaby,” just how far Greenleaf have come in their ongoing evolution, and the fact that the 46-minute, vinyl-ready collection was engineered by Karl Daniel Lidén, who was not only the band’s first drummer but has an enviable pedigree as a producer for Terra Tenebrosa, Dozer, Switchblade, Katatonia and many others, only ties its sound to the history of Greenleaf‘s varied discography. His drum sounds are immediately recognizable and something of a trademark, but as well the spaciousness in a cut like “In the Caverns Below” and how purposefully it seems to slam into the sprint of the penultimate “High Fever,” which follows, seems to bear the mark of a careful recording as well as a careful placement.
Also, as principal songwriter, Holappa seems to be marking something of a special occasion in this material, and he builds on the chemistry already so prevalent last time out with Hällagård and Olsson, while welcoming Fröhlich into the mix with due showcase of the fleet low end winding beneath so much gleeful, rampant fuzz guitar. To call Holappa anything less than a master of the form is to undersell his accomplishments herein, and to call Hear the Rivers anything less than Greenleaf‘s most realized work to-date would be a misstatement of its context and a devaluation of whats’s actually taking place on throughout.
Because as much as Holappa is the central figure in Greenleaf, especially here, he’s met head on by the rest of the band. Consider tailor-made set-launcher and opening track “Let it Out!,” which every bit earns the exclamation point in its title. Hällagård puts his stamp on Hear the Rivers from the very beginning — Fröhlich makes an early impression as well, while we’re talking about it — and continues to be both distinct of voice and a standout presence in the band, but his time on tour has made him all the more confident as a singer, and “Let it Out!” and the subsequent “Sweet it the Sound” find him dipping into bluesman’s soul to welcome and natural effect, with “Good Ol’ Goat” perhaps being the culmination here of that side of his identity in performance.
Likewise, on the straightforward rocker “A Point of a Secret,” he carries the melody while Olsson pops away on a rich-sounding snare behind, and on the side A closer “The Rumble and the Weight,” the entire band sets up symmetry with “The Rivers Lullaby” in digging into a more expansive atmosphere and mid-paced tempo while Hällagård cleverly arranges vocal layers in the chorus and Holappa and Fröhlich match wits for a brief solo section before the midpoint, leading to an even more spacious second-half.
In capping the album, “The Rivers Lullaby” works with a not-dissimilar purpose, demonstrating instrumental vibrancy and a vocal dynamic that builds to the last hook with genuine emotion as well as the sheer technical control to self-harmonize. That finale moves into a wash of noise to round out before swirling effects fade away as the last element to go — a distant cry from the thudding drums from Olsson that opened “Let it Out!,” but that would seem to be the point.
Speaking as a fan of the band — which I am — the achievements here aren’t to be understated, and they go well beyond merely hammering out a recording from the actual current Greenleaf touring lineup. That in itself isn’t nothing, since it contributes to the vitality so rampant all throughout the recording, but if the songs weren’t there in the first place, the band wouldn’t have a leg to stand on, and songwriting has always been at the core of Greenleaf no matter who’s involved. And as far as they have come even in just the past half-decade of a tenure about to hit 20 years, that central factor has never wavered. Hear the Rivers stands among its, and their, finest hours.
Greenleaf, “Good Ol’ Goat” official video
Greenleaf, “The Rivers Lullaby” lyric video
Napalm Records on Thee Facebooks
Tags: Borlange, Greenleaf, Greenleaf Hear the Rivers, Hear the Rivers, Napalm Records, Sweden
Although I like this album. I disagree with you on the mixing process here. I have the cd and it sounds too fuzzy. I’m not talking about the guitars or bass I’m speaking in terms of the overall final mix of the finished product. Rise above the meadow sounded so good that I couldn’t wait to hear the latest but was somewhat disappointed when I heard it for the first time. Even with a new pair of Bears headphones on you can still hear that fuzzy sound overlaying the music.
Beats, my dear, are shite.
Indeed, I think it’s appropriately fuzzy, and beats aren’t great cans unfortunately.