Besvärjelsen Premiere “The Cardinal Ride” from Atlas LP & Behind-the-Scenes Video
Posted in Bootleg Theater, Reviews on May 11th, 2022 by JJ Koczan
Atlas, the second full-length from Swedish atmospheric heavy rockers Besvärjelsen, is out May 27. It is the Dalarna five-piece’s first outing for Magnetic Eye Records following 2018’s Vallmo (review here) on Suicide Records and DalaPop and the subsequent 2019 Frost EP (discussed here) issued through Blues Funeral Recordings‘ PostWax vinyl subscription before seeing wider public release. Comprised of 10 tracks, Atlas — which is aptly titled if one considers the world-on-shoulders connotation, perhaps also a roadmap of how to survive under all that weight — runs 47 minutes and was written by the band mostly-remotely during pandemic lockdown before being recorded and sent to the esteemed Karl Daniel Lidén (Greenleaf, Katatonia, ex-Demon Cleaner, on and on) for mixing and mastering.
Any and all concern about the album feeling or sounding disjointed as a result of the forced shift in how it was written should be allayed. On both a technological level and in terms of the actual listening experience, Atlas is cohesive, together in a way that makes one inclined to italicize the word, and a logical step forward in sound and style from Vallmo and Frost, fueled by the songwriting of guitarists/backing vocalists Andreas Baier and Staffan Stensland Vinrot, the periodically-haunting echo-laced vocals of Lea Amling Alazam, and the unrepentant, varied grooves of bassist Johan Rockner and drummer Erik Bäckwall.
Those familiar with Besvärjelsen will recall that Rockner and Bäckwall are veterans of Dozer and Greenleaf, and the match of their playing and the mix and finishing touches from Lidén — also veteran of those two bands, in production and on drums — is especially critical to the impact throughout Atlas. As much as pieces like the rousing set-the-tone opener “The Cardinal Ride” (premiering below) and its side B counterpart/prior single “Digerliden,” the subsequent, mellower and airier “Descent” and its corresponding side A precursor “Clouds” lean hard into melody vocally and instrumentally — either keys or guitar effects fleshing out the material at various points along the way — it’s Bäckwall‘s snare that’s the first thing the listener hears on the album.
And between his fleet work on toms and cymbals on the crunched-out chugger “House of Burning Light” and the largesse of Rockner‘s rumble that matches the thud of second track “Acheron,” it’s doesn’t feel out of place to be reminded a bit of mid-period Dozer‘s penchant for shove, though with Besvärjelsen circa 2022, the context in which that element is put to use is obviously different. Fluid in tempo, open-feeling even as “The Cardinal Ride” executes the first of Atlas‘ statistically-significant hooks — bar chart forthcoming (no, not really) — and mindful of bringing together the emotional urgency of the lyrics with the weight of the music over, under, around and through which they’re delivered, depending on the moment.
In craft and realization, Besvärjelsen are methodical. Whether a given song is faster like “The Cardinal Ride” or slow like the assumed side A finale “Paradise,” an anguished linear build like “Descent” or a soaring wash in its peak like the near-eight-minute album closer “Divided Ends,” the collective hand of the band is controlled, poised and leaves Alazam room to belt out the lyrics with due force and attitude, as on “House of the Burning Light,” where the cadence nods at hip-hop without actually being it and “Obscured by Darkness,” in which doubt and negative self-talk become fodder for one of the record’s most memorable rollouts, heavy, lonely in a way that suits the era, and raw such that even the lush surroundings and insistent nod seem affected by the directness.
The aural weight in “Obscured by Darkness” isn’t to be understated either, as “Acheron” and “House of the Burning Light” — which has a genuine mosh part snuck into its post-chorus; one more reach outside heavy rock genre confines that fits with what they’re doing more generally precisely because they make it do so — act as foreshadow while the side B pairing of “Descent” and the cinematic-feeling keyboard interlude “Celestial” (would’ve worked in Dune) just prior to “Obscured by Darkness” itself ensure that the sheer impact of the penultimate cut will be duly felt, its rhythm a reminder that Besvärjelsen at their heaviest are peer to fellow Swedes like Domkraft or Cities of Mars in the sphere of post-Monolordian lumber.
At least, when they want to be. And here too one finds perhaps the most important crux of Atlas at work. Whether Besvärjelsen are bearing the weight of the world on their shoulders or finding a path simply to get through one road to the next — or both — it is their unwillingness to easily fit that most typifies their individuality as a group. That is to say, there’s always something about the songs that stands them out, and even across the 47 minutes of the album — which isn’t so long as to be unmanageable for an LP, but is by no means short either — they find ways to be expressive and engaging in kind, letting the immersion in the first 90 seconds of “Clouds” be answered by the slow-but-not-languid unfurling of what follows and layering “Digerliden” with backing vocals and a floating guitar lead that’s striking enough to speak to the consciousness on the band’s part of who they are and what they want their material to be.
The fact that they record themselves is evident in their attention to detail — a fleeting example: Alazam‘s line, “You smell like rot inside” ends just as two melodic keyboard notes answer half a minute into “Descent” — but the entirety of Atlas, when taken as a whole, feels complete and able to bring the audience into the sound that is even more definitively their own than it was three or four years ago. More over, they give no impression that their growth is finished or that they’re done experimenting and pushing the limits of aesthetic or their own abilities in writing or playing, so as much mastery as they readily showcase front-to-back throughout, Besvärjelsen‘s creative progression may still just be getting under way as they respond to, build on, and surpass their first full-length with this second one. Perhaps the circumstances in the writing of Atlas weren’t ideal. It’s difficult to hear the result as anything else.
“The Cardinal Ride” and a third installment of the Making-Of video series premiere below, followed by some words from the band, relevant links and a slew of other clips.
Please enjoy:
Besvärjelsen, “The Cardinal Ride” premiere
Besvärjelsen, The Making of Atlas, Pt. 3 premiere
Erik Bäckwall on “The Cardinal Ride”:
“‘The Cardinal Ride’ was the only song on the album that started as a jam and evolved from there. It was faster at first and had the working name “Sendrag, which means “Cramp” due to the effect it had on my right leg. It went through several iterations before Johan finally nailed the arrangement and Lea came up with the vocal melody and lyrics.”
‘Atlas’ was recorded at Studio Gröndal and Studio Glashuset, mixed and mastered by Karl Daniel Lidén in Sweden. The artwork was created by Besvärjelsen and Łukasz Jaszak. The album will be available as blue and curacao marble vinyl LP, digisleeve CD and digital on May 27th, 2022 with preorder available now via Magnetic Eye Records: http://lnk.spkr.media/besvarjelsen-atlas
BESVÄRJELSEN New album “Atlas”
Out May 27th on Magnetic Eye Records – Preorder: http://lnk.spkr.media/besvarjelsen-atlas
TRACKLIST:
1. The Cardinal Ride
2. Acheron
3. Clouds
4. House of the Burning Light
5. Paradise
6. Digerliden
7. Descent
8. Celestial
9. Obscured by Darkness
10. Divided Ends
BESVÄRJELSEN is
Lea Amling Alazam- vocals
Staffan Stensland Vinrot – guitars, vocals
Andreas Baier – guitars, vocals
Erik Bäckwall – drums
Johan Rockner – bass
