Review & Album Premiere: 10,000 Years, III
Posted in audiObelisk, Reviews on June 22nd, 2022 by JJ Koczan
[Click play above to stream ‘III’ by 10,000 Years in full. It’s out Friday June 24 on Interstellar Smoke Records (LP), Death Valley Records (CD) and Olde Magick Records (K7).]
Like destructive clockwork, Sweden’s 10,000 Years offer their second full-length and third overall release, III, precisely one day less than a full year from its predecessor, II (review here). It is the final installment of a narrative trilogy that began on the Västerås-based trio’s 2020 self-titled debut EP (review here) — which they might honestly be calling a full-length by now just for the ease of it, I don’t know, but it was an EP at the time — but if a listener is new to the band, hearing them for the first time, that shouldn’t be taken as a barrier to entry. For those looking to catch up, here’s the story as they have it:
“III”
As the crew of the “Albatross” make efforts to repair the ship and prepares to take it out into orbit in order to travel back through the rift in the space-time continuum in an attempt to seal it and restore earth to what it was, the Green King mobilizes his unholy forces to stop them from erasing the latest addition to his interdimensional imperium from existence.
Through unspeakable trials and tribulations, the remaining crew manages to narrowly escape the Green Kings wrath and finally take the “Albatross” back into space. After piloting the damaged ship out of the atmosphere and back to the point of the tear, they take it through the rift once more.
As they once again travel to suns beyond for the fate and future of humanity, they face the terrible uncertainty of oblivion and a destiny unknown…
However it may tie into the entirety of their work to this point, there’s no mistaking III as the richest and most realized output yet conjured by the returning trio of guitarist Erik Palm, bassist/vocalist Alex Risberg and drummer Espen Karlsen. The defining influence to this point has been the furious Matt Pike riffs and marauding gallop/crash of High on Fire, and just in the interest of realism it’s been two years since they started, so is and definitely should still be a strong current across the eight songs and 46 minutes of III, but even in the “Fury-Whip”-ish-but-faster launch of “Cult Axe” and the alternating thrash and nod that ensues across that first track’s 4:57, the sense of the band reaching out creatively comes through.
To wit, the thrash. “Cult Axe” throws a gauntlet down for the band themselves, and feels like the result of a discovery of identity happening early in their overarching progression (maybe fast bands do things faster), with an apparently conscious decision to step back from playing to genre resulted in an inherently more individual take. 10,000 Years — who, yes, are still named after a High on Fire song; it’s not like they’ve ever been trying to get away with anything in terms of letting the listener know where they’re coming from — are raging here. It’s a logical step forward from a year ago in the end result, but it really is the palpable feeling of the three-piece pushing themselves physically as well as creatively that comes through in the material, whether that’s Karlsen‘s creative timekeeping in “Megafauna,” Palm‘s ripping solo late in the track after Risberg lets out a gotta-respect-it “ough” and raw-throats another verse, or the largesse of nod that ensues as “Desert of Madness” is introduced on a sweeping guitar lead and massive undulation.
What ensues there is further evidence of the band’s growth, finding a noise rock style that calls to mind Souls at Zero-era Neurosis while remaining the band’s own in terms of structure and course. There are these moments throughout III, whether it’s the momentary dip into tense, but mellow atmospherics in the instrumental “The Secret of Water,” the memorable hook and fierce cymbal crashes of “The Green King Rises,” or the outright Slayer idolatry on “Il Cattivo” (as opposed perhaps to ‘il bene’ or ‘il brutto?’) that will put the listener subtly in different places and moods. These are enhanced particularly during the most aggressive moments in “Megafauna” and “Il Cattivo” — the second half of which is a highlight bass-wise from Risberg — but it’s also driving toward the closing duo of “Escape From Earth” and “To Suns Beyond,” given all the more import as the final chapters of the story being told through their position.
They’re the two longest cuts at 7:47 and 8:56, respectively, and the point of arrival of a subtle build that’s been taking place since “The Secret of Water,” charged with tying together the varied elements at play throughout the record prior. They do, with Risberg pulling a more than respectable younger-days-Scott–Kelly-style vocal on “Escape From Earth” to coincide with a consuming groove that reminds of the kinship 10,000 Years began to form sound-wise with noisemaking countrymen like Domkraft or Cities of Mars, though like those bands, this one isn’t content to simply repeat what’s been done before. “Escape From Earth” crashes out — a breath; whew — at 4:40 and launches into a build toward a crescendo that, if it had ended III, one probably wouldn’t say anything was missing as it fades to silence, but that also finds a direct continuation in theme in “To Suns Beyond.”
After all the cacophony and onslaught prior, fast, not-as-fast, pummeling, not-as-pummeling, “To Suns Beyond” — the title of which answers the inevitable question asked by “Escape From Earth” — is another instrumental, expanding on what “The Secret of Water” did earlier, with a near-proggy tone in the guitar and an overarching fluidity that holds to the noisy underpinnings of the recording as a whole thanks in no small part to 10,000 Years‘ continued alliance with the famed Sunlight Studio and likewise famed producer/mixer Tomas Skogsberg, who also helmed II and their self-titled. They end big starting about halfway through as one would hope, but as Palm‘s guitar moves past the final shredding solo, there’s an exploratory, open feel to the manner in which the track comes about on a coursing fade of residual effects that could hardly sound more like an ellipse.
Which is to say, “to be continued…?” That last minute or so of “To Suns Beyond” may be a signal of future ground the band will continue to feel out — one wouldn’t be surprised either of a less-full-throttle piece like that or “The Secret of Water” had vocals next time around — and one is of course curious to know where they might go from here in terms of theme, if they’ll continue to tell stories or not or launch a new trilogy or call it quits altogether, their work done. I don’t have those answers for what they might do next as songwriters, but the least likely scenario in my mind is that they’d stop. Momentum like this isn’t easily let go, and as much as they’ve come into their own in III, the beastliness on display is emblematic of the fact that the band have more to say.
And if they should continue to push in multiple directions at once as they do on III, so much the better. As already noted, this is the most refined work 10,000 Years have yet done, and it is no less vicious for that refinement, seeming to build and tear down atmospheres as it goes. If you can manage to keep pace with the band, it’s quite a ride.
10,000 Years, “Cult Axe” official video
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