KINGDOM OF OBLIVION

MOTORPSYCHO, this Norwegian group almost older than their age, atypical hard rock group playing for more than 30 years on the progressive atmospheres of dinosaurs; MOTORPSYCHO or how to regress and release an album oozing with dignity the BLACK SABBATH, LED ZEPPELIN and other MONSTER MAGNET. Album recorded in France before this famous pandemic on a psychedelic progressive hard rock version and after their insane trilogy Gullvåg; the 2020 one had one of the best vibes for my anvils and calipers; let's see what it is about this one knowing that they wanted to do heavy and move away from alternative rock, to do dirty hard rock, hyperbolic grunge in its creation, a trip out of rock time, good that it's for those looking for labels!

"The Waning (pt. 1 & 2)" starts with a heavy metal riff à la BLACK SABBATH quite monolithic, then it starts with a psyche atmosphere à la HAWKWIND; the fruity guitar, clear in the background is gradually staged with a burlesque jam worthy of the BEATLES time, it gradually turns on MONSTER MAGNET and MOTORPSYCHO that's good, the bass becoming more pregnant, the end with a little bucolic wind. "Kingdom of Oblivion" reminds me of MURKY RED and picks up on a 70's tune, retro as it should be but with maddening psyche rhythm and Ozzy vocals; a grandiloquent, bewitching tune, a depressive, sticky musical trance, a final as we can no longer imagine them. "Lady May 1" for an acoustic, folk, primary interlude, in the sounds of the fabulous YES who sought to get closer to the sun without burning the elders; we regress again, we settle down like Blackmore who got into acoustics as he got older; a title that comes out of its predecessors, the hypnotic guitar in place. "The United Debased" returns to a sound that is both heavier and vintage for the shouted voice, bass and keyboards. A surge of adrenaline that goes crescendo with an intense and minimalist solo à la Tony Iommi which slides in the ears; a jazz-rock break, an old and old-fashioned sound that gives off such a lot of energy that trance is inevitable, both for memories and riffs of older bands, BLACK SABBATH still being in the sights. "The Watcher" and a wonderful high entry on a 1972 cover of HAWKWIND; from the psyche, from berliner school to TANGERINE DREAM like on 'Sorcerer', a bit of early PINK FLOYD too; it hovers hard, it denotes 360 ° with the sounds from before; it's confusing and that's what makes MOTORPSYCHO so strong to be able to take us so far away at once and to follow on "Dreamkiller" always hovering, psyche, vintage, acoustic, reminiscent of a sound that the we believed lost forever; ah the recognizable riff and the rest is over; the sonorous deluge is to the storm of the Azores what our ears undergo; the keyboard of the time beforehand adds more; bam, it breaks to fall back on the sounds of departure and one wonders if we have not dreamed of the whole thing with a redundant arpeggio.

"Atet" thus imposes itself with its soft and airy instrumental acoustic track to rest you because they know it that you are a little lost in this musical maelstrom, in short a little calm and "At Empire´s End" tumbles, soft acoustic which goes up then which returns to a basic verse, to follow on this confusing psyche sound; epic track signing one of MOTORPSYCHO's hallmarks, calm, storm and vice versa. Reminiscences with LED ZEPPELIN and PINK FLOYD for the musical oxymoron revealed by the sweetness decked out in its cataclysm; a psyche made in 2020 with gentleness and violence and a dreamlike journey from the 70's to the 2020s; the starting riff returns as if to keep us in the same world, the same landscape, the distortion hanging up on us more with 2020. "The Hunt" arrives, strange folk title where JETHRO TULL can make us think, LED ZEPPELIN also with this acoustic guitar evident on 'The Battle Of Evermore'; middle-aged atmosphere suddenly, then oriental, that's it, it starts again in all directions, remaining soft, without explosion, a bit of OLDFIELD now; complex crescendic title. "After The Fair" and the primary acoustic interlude, a rest area like the parking space at Monopoly. "The Transmutation of Cosmoctopus Lurker" arrives: heavy title, mischievous, energetic; haunting mantra guitar riff, Rob ZOMBIE isn't far away; melting and hypnotizing voices, mind-boggling title which rises which rises, the orgasmic musical trance is there, quite simply: the sound is disconcerting between a fusion of grunge, funk, groove, heavy, catchy psyche, astonishing, impromptu; this long dreamlike climb stops at the end and risks leaving you transfixed, dazed. "Cormorant" for the finale, still old-school, on a BOF, the calm end after the storm, song for the warrior's rest, an instrumental putting the "END" in front of your eyes, also reminding you that the prog or whatever is left of it has gone for an hour in your ears from the velvety psyche to the energetic heavy.

MOTORPSYCHO wanted to dust off and surprise, it's done. They wanted to immerse us in a retro heavy- futuristic, it's done. They wanted the dizzying, the grandiose, the melodic, the cataclysmic, a colorful masterpiece, it's done. A singular sound, recognizable that will be uncomfortable as it advances into the innovative and progressive regions of rock itself. MOTORPSYCHO does something different in the same scales and imitation in different notes and tunes. Bluffing and nostalgic.