Posted in Whathaveyou on January 29th, 2025 by JJ Koczan
Even as they get ready to undertake winter and spring tours in celebration of their 2024 album, The Head and the Habit (review here), Sweden’s Greenleaf are taking time to mark the 25th anniversary of the band. Their 2000 self-titled debut EP (discussed here) and 2001 follow-up debut LP, Revolution Rock (discussed here) have been compiled onto what Blues Funeral Recordings is billing as Revolution Rock Deluxe, a jam-packed-with-jams 15-track presentation of Greenleaf‘s earliest work, remastered by Karl Daniel Lidén. It’s about as close to a no-brainer as you can get without actually getting into not having a brain.
The remaster of “Sold My Lady (Out the Back of an Oldsmobile)” — which has always been a better title than a song, but is going to grab attention one way or the other — is streaming at the bottom of this post, along with The Head and the Habit should you want to do a side-by-side of the band Greenleaf were with the band they are now. There’s a lesson about predicting the future in there somewhere.
Info from the PR wire:
Blues Funeral Recordings team up with Swedish heavy rock giants Greenleaf to present “Revolution Rock Deluxe”, a 15-track monster of a record combining their landmark album “Revolution Rock” (featuring members of Dozer, Lowrider, Demon Cleaner) with the long out-of-print 2000 debut EP onto one single package, fully remastered by Karl Daniel Lidén Produktion and adorned with a fresh design by Peder Bergstrand.
It will be released on March 28th in limited and worldwide edition 2xLP and digipak CD formats as well as in an extremely limited special deluxe vinyl edition for Blues Funeral’s upcoming PostWax Unlimited subscription series. More info about PostWax Unlimited: bluesfuneral.com/collections/postwax
TRACKLIST: 1. Vat 69 2. Devil Woman 3. Status: Hallucinogenic, Phase II 4. You Got Me High 5. Red Tab 6. The Shipbuilder 7. Electric Ryder 8. Hexagram 9. Monostereowhatever 10. Get Your Love Outta Here 11. Sold My Lady (Out the Back of An Oldsmobile) 12. Kvinna Du Ger Mig Ingen Kärlek 13. Smell the Green 14. Land of Lincoln 15. Status: Hallucinogenic
Led by guitarist Tommi Holappa of European desert rock icons Dozer, Greenleaf began as an informal collective of friends making music inspired by their shared love of ’70s riff rock.
Having transformed into a proper band in 2013, Greenleaf enters 2025 at the forefront of the global heavy scene on the heels of acclaimed latest album The Head & The Habit. Moving into the staggering twenty fifth year of a monumental career, they mark the milestone with a very special reissue of their earliest releases.
Featuring members of Dozer, Lowrider, Demon Cleaner and more, Greenleaf’s first album Revolution Rock was self-released in 2001 and never widely distributed nor repressed since its original 500-copy run. The new Revolution Rock Deluxe combines that landmark album with Greenleaf’s long out-of-print 2000 debut EP onto a single stunning edition, with all songs fully remastered by Karl Daniel Lidén and the original art and design brilliantly refreshed and updated by Lowrider’s Peder Bergstrand.
Join us in celebrating a quarter century of riff majesty with Revolution Rock Deluxe, and experience Greenleaf’s Big Bang for the first time again!
GREENLEAF WINTER & SPRING 2025:
⚡️AUSTRALIA TOUR 2025⚡️:
20.2 Mo’s Desert Club, Gold Coast 21.2 Soapbox, Brisbane** 22.2 Marrickvile, Sydney ** 23.2 The Baso, Canberra ** 26.2 Tanwells Hotel, Beechworth ** 27.2 Medusa, Geelong ** 28.2 The Gaso, Melbourne** 1.3 The Cranker, Adelaide** 2.3 Spliffs n Riffs Festival, Perth ** ** @iron_blanket
⚡️THE TRICKING TREE TOUR 2025⚡️
28.03.25 (DE) Karlsruhe, SOL Psych Out 29.03.25 (DE) Cologne, SOL Sonic Ride ^ 30.03.25 (FR) Wasquehal, The Black Lab * 31.03.25 (FR) Paris, Backstage * 01.04.25 (FR) Nantes, Le Ferrailleur * 03.04.25 (NL) Deventer, Burgerweeshuis * ^ 04.04.25 (NL) Eindhoven, Effenaar * ^ 05.04.25 (DE) Aschaffenburg, Colos-Saal * ^ * @highdesertqueen ^ @gnomeverse
“Revolution Rock Deluxe” lineup: Jocke Åslund – Hammond Organ Bengt Bäcke – Bass, keys Peder Bergstrand – Vocals, guitar, bass Tommi Holappa – Guitars, bass Daniel Lidén – Drums, percussion Fredrik Nordin – Vocals
GREENLEAF is: Arvid Hällagård – vocals Tommi Holappa – guitars Sebastian Olsson – drums Hans Fröhlich – bass
Posted in Whathaveyou on November 27th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
I don’t know if you saw, but in addition to Magnetic Eye recently reissuing most of Greenleaf‘s Small Stone Records era albums — 2003’s Secret Alphabets (discussed here), 2007’s Agents of Ahriman (reissue review here) and 2012’s Nest of Vipers (review here) — the Swedish rockers will also put out a special 25th anniversary edition next year of their self-titled debut EP (discussed here), originally released in 2000 through Tommi Holappa‘s Molten Universe imprint (anybody got a CD copy of the Molten Universe Vol. 1 compilation? I’ve been looking for years), long out of print and the kind of vinyl you see tagged with words like “rare,” priced accordingly.
The band have also just announced Spring 2025 European tour dates as they continue to support this year’s The Head and the Habit (review here), the latest in an ongoing thread of killer full-lengths. I’m keeping my fingers crossed they make the trip over for Ripplefest Texas / Desertfest New York as the closely-associated Dozer did in 2024. Greenleaf spent the bulk of this Fall on the road co-headlining with Slomosa, and as they’ll play both thus-far-announced Sound of Liberation anniversary parties and tour Australia and New Zealand over the winter, it seems only likely that more shows will be forthcoming. In the meantime, this tells us that High Desert Queen (from Austin, Texas) will trek abroad early next Spring, and that Belgium’s Gnome will likely have plenty going on as well.
This is eight shows. It’s eight good ones. Sound of Liberation posted the following:
GREENLEAF – THE TRICKING TREE TOUR 2025
Hey friends,
Greenleaf is hitting the road for The Tricking Tree Tour 2025!🌳🔥
Joining the ride: the mighty High Desert Queen, and on select dates, the epic Gnome!
DATES & CITIES:
28.03.25 (DE) Karlsruhe, SOL Psych Out 29.03.25 (DE) Cologne, SOL Sonic Ride ^ 30.03.25 (FR) Wasquehal, The Black Lab * 31.03.25 (FR) Paris, Backstage * 01.04.25 (FR) Nantes, Le Ferrailleur * 03.04.25 (NL) Deventer, Burgerweeshuis * ^ 04.04.25 (NL) Eindhoven, Effenaar * ^ 05.04.25 (DE) Aschaffenburg, Colos-Saal * ^
* High Desert Queen ^ Gnome
Tickets are flying – don’t miss out!
GREENLEAF is: Arvid Hällagård – vocals Tommi Holappa – guitars Sebastian Olsson – drums Hans Fröhlich – bass
Posted in Whathaveyou on August 14th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
The current incarnation of Greenleaf, pictured above, are getting ready to head out on a Fall tour co-headlining with Slomosa and supported by Magnetic Eye Records labelmates Psychlona. They just put out the new album The Head and the Habit (review here), which is a masterclass in hard-hitting, sans-bullshit heavy rock and blues.
The upcoming reissues of 2003’s Secret Alphabets (discussed here), 2007’s Agents of Ahriman (reissue review here) and 2012’s Nest of Vipers (review here) covers different lineups and the bulk of the Swedish band’s Small Stone Records era, which capped with 2014’s Trails and Passes (review here), at which point vocalist Arvid Hällagård took over for Oskar Cedermalm — also of Truckfighters — who had fronted them for the latter two of these three LPs, and Greenleaf set about changing from Tommi Holappa from Dozer‘s side-project and became a full-time, hard-touring band.
There were years I swore by Agents of Ahriman as the best thing Greenleaf ever did. Then Nest of Vipers came out and that narrative got more complicated. It has not become less so with the records they’ve done since, either, including The Head and the Habit. But if you don’t have these — and I’m not ignoring Secret Alphabets here either; their second LP is a landmark — and have gotten on board with the band in the years since, these are worth having both for contextual purposes in hearing the beginnings of the Greenleaf of today, who I have no qualms touting as one of the best heavy rock acts in Europe or anywhere else, and more importantly, just for hearing them because they’re great records.
They’ll be out around the time the tour with Slomosa and Psychlona starts. The PR wire has more:
Magnetic Eye is stoked to present exclusive new editions of three classic albums from our own almighty GREENLEAF!
Before they became a proper band, Greenleaf started as a loose collective of friends making 70s-inspired hard rock and proto-metal. Led by guitarist Tommi Holappa, co-founder of Euro desert rock originators Dozer, various configurations of Greenleaf included members of Lowrider, Truckfighters, Demon Cleaner, Dozer and more. And despite the rotating cast of players, they managed to release multiple albums of the highest caliber riff rock across the 14 years in their original unstructured form.
Now, in celebration of the Swedish heavyweights’ astonishing 25-year career and the stratospheric release of their latest LP ‘The Head & The Habit’ this year, Magnetic Eye Records brings forth brand new reissues of three of GREENLEAF’s iconic out-of-print classics, with new editions of ‘Secret Alphabets’, ‘Agents of Ahriman’ and ‘Nest of Vipers’ on sleek new colored vinyl and digisleeve CD. Coming this October and available just in time for their massive European tour with Slomosa and Psychlona!
GREENLEAF & SLOMOSA w/ PSYCHLONA 30 SEP 2024 Leipzig (DE) Werk2 01 OCT 2024 Berlin (DE) Lido 02 OCT 2024 (DE) Hamburg (DE) Gruenspan 03 OCT 2024 Köln (DE) Club Volta 04 OCT 2024 Bielefeld (DE) Forum 05 OCT 2024 Leeuwarden (NL) Into the Void 06 OCT 2024 Pratteln (CH) Up in Smoke 07 OCT 2024 Innsbruck (AT) PMK 09 OCT 2024 Wien (AT) Arena 10 OCT 2024 Zagreb (HR) Vintage Industrial Bar 11 OCT 2024 Graz (AT) PPC 12 OCT 2024 München (DE) Keep It Low
GREENLEAF is: Arvid Hällagård – vocals Tommi Holappa – guitars Sebastian Olsson – drums Hans Fröhlich – bass
Posted in Whathaveyou on July 4th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
I’m not at all at a place in my life where I could even if I was ever to be invited — which, in a conservative estimate I’ll say is struck-by-lightning-and-live-level unlikely — but man, I’d love to go on this tour. Imagine following Dozer, Gozu and High Desert Queen as they traipse across the US colluding on the delivery of ultra-fine heavy rock and roll for nine days, including stops at Desertfest New York and Ripplefest Texas both. Damn that’d be fun. Also tiring. And my wife would have my ass, if my entering-first-grade daughter didn’t get to kicking it first. Nonetheless, even the daydream of hurry-up-and-wait tour existence is fun in this case.
I think the last time Dozer were in the US was 2000? Something like that. I seem to recall they played the Brighton Bar in my beloved Garden State, but I could be wrong about that. They return Stateside in 2024 riding the utter triumph of their 2023 return LP, Drifting in the Endless Void (review here), which indeed is a cause worth heralding. I was lucky enough to catch Dozer last summer supporting the album (review here) and even luckier that it wasn’t my first time seeing the band, but to have them hit the US (and a lil bit of Canada!) alongside Gozu — their 2023 album, Remedy (review here), remains a standout — and High Desert Queen, who issued their widely anticipated second album, Palm Reader (review here) in May, is even better.
Mark it a win, kids. Poster and such from the ol’ social media:
USA! Endless void tour is coming for you this September…are you ready? 🤘 Support by @highdesertqueen and @gozu_band_boston
DOZER – Endless Void US Tour 2024 feat. Gozu & High Desert Queen 09.13 Braintree MA Widowmaker Brewing 09.14 Queens NY Desertfest NYC 09.15 Montreal QC Piranha Bar 09.16 Toronto ON The Garrison 09.17 Grand Rapids MI Pyramid Scheme 09.18 Chicago IL Reggies Rock Club 09.19 Omaha NE Reverb Lounge 09.20 Oklahoma City OK Resonant Head 09.21 Austin TX Ripplefest Texas
DOZER is: Tommi Holappa – Guitar Fredrik Nordin – Guitar/Vox Johan Rockner – Bass Sebastian Olsson – Drums
People and faces, horses and wolves in the mind, a tumult of inner and outer overwhelm; it’s no wonder that Greenleaf‘s ninth album, The Head and the Habit, starts with the reminder to “Breathe, Breathe Out” amid all the tumult. There’s more to it as well. 2024 makes it 10 years since 2014’s Trails and Passes (review here) introduced vocalist Arvid Hällagård to listeners. Hällagård stepped in to fill the significant shoes of Oskar Cedermalm (also Truckfighters), who had handled vocals on their two prior outings, and has gradually become a defining presence in the band. Never more so than on The Head and the Habit, which in addition to serving as a handy showcase for how the Swedish four-piece founded by guitarist Tommi Holappa (also Dozer) have taken shape in the last decade, is also the band’s first outing for Magnetic Eye after a trilogy of releases — 2021’s Echoes From a Mass (review here), 2018’s Hear the Rivers (review here) and 2016’s Rise Above the Meadow (review here) — issued through Napalm Records.
Hällagård fronts the band — Holappa, bassist Hans Fröhlich and drummer Sebastian Olsson — with marked presence in the material, and with the somewhat contrasting pair of shorter, subdued blues cuts “That Obsidian Grin” and “An Alabastrine Smile” positioned at the end of each side, his soulful delivery has become an essential facet in the band’s consistently evolving dynamic, as well as the symmetry of this LP in its own right. Greenleaf has seen a number of vocalists (not to mention bassists or drummers) come and go, between Fredrik Nordin (Dozer), Peder Bergstrand (Lowrider). and Cedermalm, but the nine songs of The Head and the Habit wouldn’t function as they do with another singer. In framing the lyrics around his experience as a counselor, handling the cover art (Lili Krischke also contributed to the layout) and recording whatever of his own performance wasn’t captured by the esteemed Karl Daniel Lidén (who once upon a time drummed in Greenleaf, lest we forget) at Studio Gröndahl in Stockholm, Hällagård‘s work in cuts like the duly charging “Different Horses” or the eight-minute side B apex “The Tricking Tree” cannot be discounted as part of the band’s persona, especially as they lean further into their own version of a heavy blues sound.
That’s not to say The Head and the Habit lacks for thrust, but where Echoes From a Mass edged closer than ever in terms of riffing to the intensity Holappa might proffer with Dozer — whose first album in 15 years, Drifting in the Endless Void (review here), came out in 2023 on Blues Funeral — this 43-minute collection feels more dug into Greenleaf‘s distinguishing elements. The meandering solo before “The Tricking Tree” slams into its final, nodding roll, answering back to the weight wrought in the likely-titled-for-its-tumbling-riff second cut “Avalanche” much as “That Obsidian Grin” and “An Alabastrine Smile” or even the hooky “Breathe, Breathe Out” and its side-B-opening counterpart “The Sirens Sound” serve as complements. The structure of the record puts one additional song on side A, but the cohesiveness and clarity of purpose throughout — as well as the breadth of the mix/master Lidén at his Tri-Lamb Studios — allows Greenleaf to shift intention from one track to the next without losing sight of where they are in the overarching progression.
The result is that The Head and the Habit flows smoothly despite conveying a bumpier path in theme and sound. Part of what makes it a success is the swagger put into a piece like “Oh Dandelion,” with its start-stop verse and twisting chorus, but as Greenleaf once again diverge from Dozer in terms of style, it’s the bluesier nature underlying even the shove of “Different Horses” or the foreboding “A Wolf in My Mind” — the hook of which brings the album’s title line — that comes into focus as being crucial to the songs. From the righteous shaky-cam rumbles of tone in “Avalanche” to Holappa‘s wistful leads in “An Alabastrine Smile,” as heavy and loud and brash or as quiet, lonely and contemplative as they want to get, it all becomes part of a take that is inextricably Greenleaf while reorienting the band’s position in terms of style, pulling in a direction they seem to be charting as they go.
This is exciting enough in concept — Greenleaf are approaching the 25th anniversary of 2000 their self-titled EP (discussed here); such ongoing creative development is rare regardless of how personnel factors in — but none of it would matter if the songs didn’t hold up. Fortunately, they do. It’s hardly the first time the band have been catchy and able to pack an emotional punch, but they continue to make it sound easier than it actually is from “Breathe, Breathe Out” on. And even in “The Tricking Tree,” with its earlier bashing away and pre-midpoint departure into mellower, jammier, bassier fare, they hold a sense of energy that is individual, unquestionably theirs. Olsson‘s drumming can’t be discounted in keeping the material fluid, but this incarnation of Greenleaf has put in the time on stage and in the studio to win their chemistry as a collective, and the strength of craft across The Head and the Habit feels like its own reward. It’s not just Holappa‘s riffs — though that might be enough, considering — or Hällagård‘s vocals, the character in Fröhlich‘s bass or Olsson‘s drums; it’s how they come together around these songs, which vary in shape but are largely unflinching in quality.
Any album a given band might release is a marker of an ‘era’ in terms of encapsulating a time in that band’s existence — and, obviously, all things end at some point or another; Greenleaf don’t owe anyone anything and have precious little to prove, though they keep proving it anyhow — but The Head and the Habit seems so much to look ahead and to so fervently bask in what makes Greenleaf who they are nearly a quarter-century on that one can’t help but think of it as the realization of what their last decade has been driving toward. A to-date culmination made all the more vital by the high level of performance, the almost deceptively tight songwriting, and the fullness of scope in its component pieces and the flow between them. They’re a special band, and to call The Head and the Habit one of 2024’s best in heavy rock feels like limiting its appeal in terms of time and underselling the growth that’s led Greenleaf to this point — it’s part of a story bigger than itself — but it’s true just the same.
Posted in Whathaveyou on April 29th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
A couple raw stats here to start. Greenleaf‘s ninth LP, The Head and the Habit, is out June 21 on Magnetic Eye. Slomosa‘s second album, the title of which I don’t think is public yet, is scheduled to arrive later this year (presumably before this tour) through Stickman Records. And Psychlona, who also signed to Magnetic Eye at the end of 2023, reportedly just finished tracking their own upcoming album this past week.
Three killer bands touring with new music, is the upshot. It’s emblematic of the continued ascent of Norwegian four-piece Slomosa to the forefront of the European heavy underground that they’re co-headlining with a band who’ve been around for about 25 years, but as the single “Cabin Fever” (video premiered here) makes plain, their intent is to continue the significant momentum behind them at this point, and no doubt this Fall tour — hitting Into the Void in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, Up in Smoke in Switzerland, and Keep it Low in Germany on the Sound of Liberation October festival circuit — will help them do that.
For Greenleaf, the tour announcement comes coupled with the unveiling of “Avalanche,” the duly-tumbling-of-groove second single from The Head and the Habit, which seems nestled into its hook for the duration until… well, I won’t spoil it. But if you think maybe they named the song after the riff, I’ll agree that it’s a definite possibility. At very least, they’d have been well justified in doing so.
Who’s first on the poster depends on whose poster you’re seeing — note the two below — but ‘Habit of the Tundra’ starts Sept. 30 either way. The below is from multiple PR wire sources, so maybe reads a bit choppy, but if you find the dates and the music, you’ll get the idea anyhow. Have at it:
Swedish heavy rockers GREENLEAF reveal a sparkling lyric video for the groovy ten-ton track ‘Avalanche’ as the next single from their forthcoming full-length “The Head & The Habit”, which is scheduled for release on June 21, 2024 via Magnetic Eye Records! In support of “The Head & The Habit”, GREENLEAF have just announced European live dates of the “Habit of the Tundra Tour” with Norwegian desert rockers SLOMOSA and support from PSYCHLONA for autumn 2024.
Following first, previously-released new singles, “Cabin Fever” as well as “Rice”, taken off their forthcoming studio album, Norwegian desert rock upstarters SLOMOSA have confirmed a European Tour with Swedish heavy groove rockers GREENLEAF, who are currently gearing up for the release of their new album “The Head & The Habit” (June 21st via Magnetic Eye Records)! Make sure to catch this killer tour package live at the dates below:
GREENLEAF & SLOMOSA w/ PSYCHLONA 30 SEP 2024 Leipzig (DE) Werk2 01 OCT 2024 Berlin (DE) Lido 02 OCT 2024 (DE) Hamburg (DE) Gruenspan 03 OCT 2024 Köln (DE) Club Volta 04 OCT 2024 Bielefeld (DE) Forum 05 OCT 2024 Leeuwarden (NL) Into the Void 06 OCT 2024 Pratteln (CH) Up in Smoke 07 OCT 2024 Innsbruck (AT) PMK 09 OCT 2024 Wien (AT) Arena 10 OCT 2024 Zagreb (HR) Vintage Industrial Bar 11 OCT 2024 Graz (AT) PPC 12 OCT 2024 München (DE) Keep It Low
GREENLEAF is: Arvid Hällagård – vocals Tommi Holappa – guitars Sebastian Olsson – drums Hans Fröhlich – bass
SLOMOSA are: Benjamin Berdous – Vocals/guitar Marie Moe – Vocals/bass Tor Erik Bye – Guitar Jard Hole – Drums
Posted in Whathaveyou on March 26th, 2024 by JJ Koczan
Well, the album was the missing piece to Greenleaf spending much of the rest of 2024 on tour supporting a new album, so this little bit of paperwork takes care of that. The announcement just came through and brings the first single “Breathe, Breathe Out” from the record in question, titled The Head and the Habit and due June 26 through Magnetic Eye Records, which I haven’t even had time yet to hear owing to the domestic whathaveyou of a given morning. I’ll get there as soon as possible, to be sure. [EDIT: Got there. The video is charming and the song feels right on. Duh, I’m stoked for the record.]
Expect summer and autumn tours around the fest appearances listed below, more to come on the album, and, well, probably a lot of me nerding out about Greenleaf coinciding with all of it. I’ve been lucky enough to see the band a couple times in the last few years, and in addition to being gentlemen of the highest order, they’re brilliant on stage. Catch them if you can.
More later. This now:
GREENLEAF release first video single ‘Breathe, Breathe Out’ and details of new album “The Head & The Habit”!
Swedish heavy rockers GREENLEAF release the tongue-in-cheek video clip and super catchy tune ‘Breathe, Breathe Out’ as the first driving single taken from their forthcoming full-length “The Head & The Habit”, which is slated for release on June 26, 2024 via Magnetic Eye Records!
The video ‘Breathe, Breathe Out’ combines the struggles of great parenting with social commentary on the generational gap and film directing.
“The first single ‘Breathe, Breathe Out’ conveys a message of self-reflection and resilience”, explains vocalist Arvid Hällagård. “The repetition of the chorus emphasizes the importance of taking a moment to relax and let go of negative emotions. The overall theme encourages embracing one’s current state, appreciating what you have, and navigating through life with a sense of control and acceptance. I’ve had to teach these things to myself during the last couple of years. This is also the overall theme of the album, the head and its habits.”
With their ninth full-length “The Head & The Habit”, GREENLEAF have reached the pinnacle of a long evolution. The musical handwriting and well-honed mastery of guitarist Tommi Holappa, who has been a pioneer and pillar of the European stoner rock scene for more than 25 years, shines clearly through. This is perfectly complemented by the soulfulness, intuitive sense of melody, and depth of character that the vocals of classically-trained singer Arvid Hällagård brings to the sound of GREENLEAF.
Apart from world-class vocal lines and massive riffs with electric fuzz-power, GREENLEAF have put extra thought into the themes of “The Head & The Habit”, which lift its lyrics far above much of the often cliché-ridden genre. As the album title implies, the new songs resemble symbolic short stories that revolve around emotional struggles and even mental illness. Written by the vocalist, the lyrics reflect real life experience as Hällagård works with people who suffer from problems with drug abuse and psychological health.
Tracklist: 1. Breathe, Breathe Out 2. Avalanche 3. Different Horses 4. A Wolfe in My Mind 5. That Obsidian Grin 6. The Sirens Sound 7. Oh Dandelion 8. The Tricking Tree 9. An Alabastrine Smile
GREENLEAF Live: 2 APR 2024 Barcelona (ES) BCN @ Sala Upload 3 APR 2024 Bilbao (ES) Bullitt Groove Club 04 APR 2024 Avilés (ES) Factoria Sound 05 APR 2024 Porto (PT) Hard Club 06 APR 2024 Madrid (ES) Wurlitzer Ballroom 05 JUN 2024 London (UK) Stoomfest 12 June 2024 Erfurt (DE) Stoned from the Underground 31 AUG 2024 Aarschot (BE) Down the Hill 12 OCT 2024 München (DE) Keep It Low
Recording with Karl Daniel Lidén at Studio Gröndahl, Stockholm (SE) Additional vocals recorded by Arvid Hällagård at Studio Baking Cabin Mix by Karl Daniel Lidén in Tri-lamb Studios, Stockholm (SE) Mastering by Karl Daniel Lidén in Tri-lamb Studios, Stockholm (SE)
Artwork by Arvid Hällagård Layout by Arvid Hällagård & Lili Krischke
GREENLEAF is: Arvid Hällagård – vocals Tommi Holappa – guitars Sebastian Olsson – drums Hans Fröhlich – bass
This Wednesday, March 27, Swedish heavy and progressive rockers Skraeckoedlan return with their fourth full-length, Vermillion Sky. It is their second LP through Fuzzorama Records behind the sprawling realization of 2019’s Eorþe (review here), with the years between finding the Borlänge/Norrköping four-piece reissuing their 2011 debut, Äppelträdet (review here) and its 2015 follow-up, Sagor (review here), through The Sign Records, and its arrival has been anticipated since the band unveiled “The Vermillion Sky” as a standalone single over half a year ago.
Vermillion Sky is a multifaceted project even before one gets to the rhythmic twists and melodic reaches, the grandiosities and quiet moments offered in its component eight tracks and 47 minutes, and if part of either that span of months or the not-accounted-for-by-plague portion of the five years it’s been since Eorþe comes from lining up logistics on either the video game or English-language novel intended to be released to complement the music, fair enough, though it was four between Sagor and that record as well, so it’s not an outlandish dearth of activity by any means. The novelization of VermillionSky, reportedly broken into chapters around each song, will perhaps be of particular interest to that non-Swedish-speaking contingent of their listenership who’ve maybe not been curious enough to run their lyrics through a translation matrix to get a semblance of the themes out of science-fiction, daikaiju, and so on.
To wit, “The Vermillion Sky,” caps an expansive A-side that begins with the drone-backed staticky dialogue in the two-minute intro “Cosmic Dawn” from whence a Devin Townsendy prog flow emerges with the anchoring fuzz on Erik Berggren‘s bass and fluid drumming of Martin Larsson‘s drums complemented by shimmer of synth and the guitars of Robert Lamu and Henrik Grüttner in a showcase of maturity and (condensed) patience that serves as preface to the stately composition of the title-track and others here. That obscured speech, mixed low enough that you genuinely might not hear it the first time through, ties into the escape-from-earth — and no, it’s not lost on me that their last record was ‘earth’ in translation — narrative of “The Vermillion Sky,” and while they seem to work in as well as around this thematic and it might at first be unclear how the hooky repetitions of the in-English title lyric to second single “Night Satan” fit in, the concept remains present for the lines, “Så lägg din hand i min och visa mig bland stjärnorna/Jag la min hand i din och du visa mig oändlighet” (“So put your hand in mine and show me the stars/I put my hand in yours and you show me infinity,” according to the internet), so those connections are there if not always obvious. One assumes the same applies for the likes of “Starsquatch,” “Metagalactic Void Honcho,” who sounds as burly as one might expect given the title, “Meteorb” or “Astronautilus” as well.
But even if you as the listener don’t take Vermillion Sky on for its storyline at all or if scrolling shooter games aren’t your thing, the songs are enough to carry you through. “Starsquatch” enters with a burst, resets in an open expanse of keyboard and sweeps in the first of a vast collection of massive grooves, characteristic in its adherence to fuzzier tonality and arrangement depth evident even just in the space between the guitar and drums, never mind the e-bow or whatever effect it is or the arrangement of lead and backing vocals in the rolling chorus. Hitting a stop at 4:40 into its 7:58, they break to echoing vocals and standalone guitar before surging forward again in a pointed wash of distortion that turns out to be a misdirect as they cut to clearer-sounding dual-guitar leads and a faster tempo verse ahead of the actual solo. Of course the riff comes back, bigger and more consuming, and the pattern of side A is set when “Mysteria” takes its turn riff-punching through the wall with dense low end and purposeful shove — the first half of the album trading shorter-to-longer pieces starting with “Cosmic Dawn” and the second half switching that to its own two longer tracks bookending the relative brevity of “Night Satan” and “Meteorb.”
So Skraeckoedlan are playing with time as well as space on Vermillion Sky, and the level of composition and nuance with which they do so shouldn’t be understated. Lamu‘s vocal melodies — and I’m sorry, I don’t know every detail on who’s doing what vocally here, but there are voice-swaps enough to make me think it’s multiple singers — go beyond following the riffs, which are occasionally busy enough that that would be a challenge anyway, and feel like part of the atmosphere along with the Mellotron and Rhodes (or some such) that further distinguish “Mysteria” after the push through its first half has already brought intense strikes of piano as part of its culminating build just before the two-and-a-half-minute mark.
That holds true in rougher-delivered or shoutier stretches like the end of “Mysteria,” or the gutted-out verses of “Metagalactic Void Honcho” surrounded by what sounds like duly gravitational destruction that dares some hope in its lead-topped final nod before it cuts to far-back guitar echoes and thud to end, or the galloping midsection of “Meteorb,” wherein even the air-tight structure and quick 3:38 runtime are enough for the band to use vocals as an instrument corresponding to the mood of a given part. The scorch of keyboard in that song’s charge, the way the drums open up the groove in the last hook, the details and nuance of the keys, synth, guitar, effects, whatever, in the mix — it all comes together as a complete representation of craft from Skraeckoedlan that feels deeper and more dug into its own processes than they’ve been before, but at the same time is more engaging and outward-reaching for that. If that’s a mature Skraeckoedlan self-producing and wielding their own sound, cognizant of their dynamic and the physicality of the material they’re writing, I’ll take it happily. They always feel like they’re ready to break out and run. That catch-up-to-this energy is always there, pulling the audience forward.
At the same time, their sense of control is palpable, whether it’s the look-what-we-can-do-with-a-stoner-riff mid-tempo chug in the verses of “Night Satan” — lest we forget their tonal and recording tutelage under Truckfighters (who also run Fuzzorama Records) — or the furies manifest in dramatic style on “Metagalactic Void Honcho” just before, but detracts neither from the energy in their delivery or their willingness to go all-in on an arrangement like “Astronautilus,” mellowing after its verse for a moment of proggy, key-topped exploration as it circles around and builds tension for its flowing, deceptively graceful emergence, leading into a solo and chorus that reinforce notions of structure even as they adrenaline-boost Vermillion Sky out of the atmosphere and into the resonant float of its comedown, some staticky layer there calling back to the opening of “Cosmic Dawn” as that structural cohesion finds its own meta level on which to operate.
Each album Skraeckoedlan have released has been an incremental step forward creatively from the one before it, and that applies to Vermillion Sky even as the band further define and distinguish an idea of their individual sound. That they recorded and mixed it themselves (Magnus Lindberg mastered) is also a crucial consideration — not because of any kind of down-scaling in production value; there isn’t one — but as another way to continue to grow as a unit and a means of more directly bringing their music to life. And whatever else is happening around them in various media, whatever apocalypses they’re conveying in the world they’ve conjured, these songs feel utterly alive.
In short, this is a sci-fi themed concept piece that screams DIY, having been entirely written, recorded, produced and mixed by the band themselves. A huge undertaking, especially considering one of the first steps in the process was basically to google: “how to properly mic a snare drum”. Mastering however has been beautifully done by Magnus Lindberg (Cult of Luna), which as always has yielded fantastic results.
Speaking of DIY and huge undertakings, Vermillion Sky will also be available as a novel (date to come), where each chapter corresponds to a track on the album. The story has been written by the band and is for those that want to take a real deep dive into the concept and join the crew of the Vermillion Sky as they unravel a mystery with galactic consequences. Contrary to the signature Swedish lyrics of the songs, the novel is in English.
An even more active way to interact with the release is to play the Vermillion Sky computer game the band has helped create. It’s an 8-bit style point chaser, where you travel through the Void as the ship, collecting upgrades to survive the multitude of enemies trying to put an end to your journey. If you want the absolute best experience of the game, make sure to come to one of the release tour shows, where Skraeckoedlan’s very own Vermillion Sky-arcade machine will be featured.
Live long and prosper!
Vermillion Sky tracklist 1. Cosmic Dawn (2:42) 2. Starsquatch (7:58) 3. Mysteria (5:21) 4. The Vermillion Sky (7:10) 5. Metagalactic Void Honcho (8:07) 6. Night Satan (4:53) 7. Meteorb (3:38) 8. Astronautilus (7:50)
Skraeckoedlan: Robert Lamu – Vocals, Guitar Henrik Grüttner – Guitar, Vocals Erik Berggren – Bass, Vocals Martin Larsson – Drums, Vocals
