Craneium Sign to Majestic Mountain Records; Premiere Video for New Single “Empty Palaces”
Craneium have signed to Majestic Mountain Records. The Finnish progressive heavy psychedelic rockers aren’t yet at a full year’s remove from putting out their most vivid realization to-date, Feb. 2024’s Point of No Return (review here), but as is their wont, they’re ready to move forward. Streaming on the player below is a band-made video for “Empty Palaces,” a new, (at-least-for-now) standalone single to mark the occasion as they continue to write for their next outing.
If you know Craneium, having either caught wind of Point of No Return or any of the Turku four-piece’s prior LPs — 2021’s Unknown Heights (review here), 2018’s The Narrow Line (review here), or 2015’s Explore the Void; they also had a split with Black Willows in 2018 (review here) and various singles and odds and ends as fodder for Bandcamp perusal — the new song represents them well. I don’t know if it was tracked at the same time as Point of No Return, but they list a 2022 recording date, and the team of producer Joona Hassinen at Sweden’s Studio Underjord and mixing/mastering engineer Karl Daniel Lidén is consistent across both album and single, so if it’s a leftover from the album sessions, it’s one well chosen to feature by itself.
Point of No Return isn’t short on hooks, with songs like the leadoff “One Thousand Sighs,” the emotive and atmospheric cast of “A Distant Shore” or the side B highlight “Things Have Changed.” “Empty Palaces” works in this vein but is slightly shorter and more direct in doing so. Its verse picks up around a comfortably-paced swinging groove, as the vocals of Andreas Kaján — he stars in the video as the frontman very much not involved in lugging equipment back and forth, which is what guitarist Martin Ahlö, bassist Jonas Ridberg and drummer Joel Kronqvist are up to throughout; to be fair he’s busy playing along to the song — draw the listener toward the melodic catharsis-release of the chorus. There’s nothing too tricky happening structurally, and there doesn’t need to be.
The band have long since proven themselves able to conjure grand expanses of tonal reach, but fuzz rock is still somewhere at the core of that. “Empty Palaces” doesn’t revisit their past even if it’s stripped down in comparison to some of the songs on the record, but it hits in a different way, which, again, makes it work well as a single. See? I knew we’d get back around to the point eventually. One strives for the kind of efficiency Craneium show here.
Enjoy the clip, congrats to the band on joining forces with Majestic Mountain (and to the label on the pickup of a killer band), and here’s looking forward to what comes next:
Craneium, “Empty Palaces” video premiere
Martin Ahlö on “Empty Palaces”:
“A friend of the band gifted us a book on old Egyptian magick, and some of the spells carried really empowering messages. It also inspired the themes that we explored a lot in our music at the moment: the inevitable decay of mankind’s empires and monuments at the hands of nature and time.”
Joel Kronqvist on “Empty Palaces”:
“We’re beyond excited to share a new single called “Empty Palaces” with the world. This track is the perfect blend of our signature 90’s edge mixed with the soulful, retro vibes of the 70’s.”
Craneium is back with a new track ‘Empty Palaces’ and the first to be released on Majestic Mountain Records!
Their latest album, “Point of No Return,” released on February 23, 2024, dives deep into this sonic universe. Tracks like “One Thousand Sighs” and “The Sun” promise an auditory journey through expansive landscapes, both physical and emotional. This album marks a continuation of their evolution since the critically acclaimed “Unknown Heights” in 2021, which was also the start of their venture with The Sign Records.
Video created by Craneium. All music written, arranged and performed by Craneium.
Recorded and produced by Joona Hassinen at Studio Underjord, Finspång, Sweden October 2022
Mixed and mastered by Karl Daniel Lidén.
Craneium are:
Andreas Kaján – vocals, guitar and keys
Joel Kronqvist – drums and percussion
Jonas Ridberg – bass
Martin Ahlö – guitar
Craneium, Point of No Return (2024)
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Tags: Craneium, Craneium Point of No Return, Finland, Point of No Return, The Sign Records, Turku
Killer track!
Welcome to MMR!
I saw this band play in an abandoned gas station in Amsterdam Noord back in July. They were killer.