Review & Track Premiere: CB3, Aeons
[Click play above to stream the premiere of ‘Warrior Queen’ from CB3’s Aeons. Album is out Feb. 28 on The Sign Records.]
They never approach what-you-see-is-what-you-get level simplicity in terms of sound, but at least some of what you need to know about CB3 is there in the name. The acronym, which they seem to prefer to go by, stands for Charlotta’s Burnin’ Trio. Sure enough, there are three of them. They’re led by guitarist Charlotta Andersson. And they burn. Their style is rooted in heavy rock as some of Andersson‘s riffing and certainly her tone demonstrate, but there is a willful-sounding embrace of the progressive as well on their The Sign Records label debut and third album overall, Aeons. Andersson and fellow-founding member Natanael Salomonsson started out in jazzier territory on their 2015 self-titled debut, and across a 2016 live offering, the 2017 short release Adventures, early 2018’s sophomore LP, From Nothing to Eternity (discussed here), and the subsequent live EP, Cult of the Crystals, the Malmö, Sweden, outfit have continually ventured into broader and more psychedelic and weighted ground.
Aeons, which runs an utterly manageable 32 minutes across five tracks, continues this push into the uncharted cosmos perhaps most of all on its nine-minute centerpiece “Acid Haze” — an obvious focal point for the record — but also more generally throughout, as Andersson, Salomonsson and bassist Pelle Lindsjö enact organic-sounding instrumentalist fluidity and give their listeners a range of depths/reaches to explore in kind with the band. Songs are arranged for a journey, parabolically or like a mountain being climbed — though, again, at such a gracefully flowing 32 minutes, it’s not exactly a strenuous uphill — with opener “Zodiac” (3:51) and “Sonic Blaze” (6:50) which follows, building in runtime up to the already-noted longer stretch of “Acid Haze” (9:08), and “Warrior Queen” (7:26) and “Apocalypse” (5:00) paring back down from there in length if not in style or breadth.
Indeed, if anything, “Warrior Queen” answers the sprawl of “Acid Haze” with its own outbound push, particularly over the course of its first five minutes moving further and further from the ground as Andersson‘s guitar soars and shimmers above the solidified but still jammy groove beneath. From there, CB3 come together around a sequence of riffs, one into the next, and resolve the track’s final moments with a straightforward thrust that’s a standout moment even amid the sax and mellotron psychedelic wash of “Apocalypse” that follows — turns out the end of the world is kind of pretty; certainly much prettier than it feels living through it. The point, however, is that the second half of Aeons‘ unfurls itself no less gracefully than does the first. Listening to “Zodiac” at the record’s outset, the groove seems more grounded, toying around with a winding blues riff that wouldn’t seem out of place on a Clutch record even as CB3 manipulate it in various ways via shifts of tempo and effects wash, synth (or synth sounds), and so on, eventually finding their way into a slower nod that only pulls itself further down as it proceeds toward its own end and the more active start of “Sonic Blaze.”
One would hardly call these tracks grounded, even in relation to “Acid Haze” or the first half of “Warrior Queen,” and yet, the temptation to put a first/then narrative — as in, first they’re on the ground, then they’re not — to the progression of Aeons is hard to resist, especially with the sax and mellotron so clearly purposeful in their positioning in the final track. But the truth is more complicated, and, honestly, richer in terms of scope. “Sonic Blaze” flirts with some ambient drone before finding footing in a crash-laden YOB-style triplet gallop, which Andersson then moves up the fretboard before finally releasing into the ether, and eventually returns to the central riff of the track before capping with a winding conclusion on the way into the patient start of “Acid Haze” itself.
And yes, “Acid Haze” go-go-go-goes to new degrees of galaxial spaciousness in a way that CB3 didn’t do even a year ago, the guitar in eyes-closed-Hendrixian-style echo-shred leading the hypnotic wash that ensues on what is a genuinely gorgeous and singular moment on the album, running as far out as it can before Salomonsson‘s popping snare returns to bring momentum and set the stage for the more sweeping second half of the song, though that too has its due portion of noise before the last live-style crashout and the triumphant guitar intro of “Warrior Queen” commences.
Flow becomes central to the penultimate inclusion on Aeons, and in that regard CB3 are right at home, with some joyful headspinning solo fare after the three-minute mark and a generally languid vibe earlier on before, as noted, the more grounded, chugging end takes hold and builds up to the last charge, leaving just “Apocalypse” to round out, its strumming intro and quiet rim-tap snare serving as the initial foundation on which the fuller tonal impact is made. The aforementioned mellotron arrives earlier than the sax, which doesn’t come until just after the halfway mark and seems to show up in layers when it does, but both are central to the song’s statement and the album’s conclusion, bringing together CB3‘s jazz roots with their intent toward classic progressive rock in a way that, thanks to its atmospheric stylization, avoids the self-indulgence one might commonly associate with fusion or such jazzy impulses.
That is a line that CB3 walk well throughout Aeons, grounding themselves at the beginning and periodically afterward even as they venture into new, more cosmic and psychedelic places. Particularly as an instrumental unit, they’re able to bring an imaginative sense to what they do, but they don’t ever seem to lose focus on their central purpose either, and Aeons is a stronger record on the whole for it. I’m left wondering if there isn’t a storyline taking place between the songs as “Sonic Blaze” and “Acid Haze” and “Warrior Queen” flow in succession toward, well, the end of all things, but perhaps that’s a concern best left for the inevitable sequel. For now, Aeons clearly demonstrates CB3‘s ongoing commitment to evolving their sound, and their ability to meld progressive and psychedelic impulses with a rare and well-harnessed vitality. Would seem that’s plenty to ask of a record that’s just over a half-hour long, no?
CB3, Aeons (2020)
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Tags: Aeons, CB3, CB3 Aeons, Malmö, Sweden, The Sign Records
