THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF KRAUTROCK: AUM

The band has reformed again with new personnel around Niko's powerful guitar and psychedelic vision for this latest record of Seven That Spells. The A(lb)um is composed within a satanic circle, this sinful sphere being present both in sonic architecture of the release and on the record cover's symbolism.

In the start of this sphere dwells an anticipating rhythm, wall of noise and demonic chanting, which leads the music to euphoric ride to cosmic rock patterns and repetitive ascending guitar themes. There are very pleasant hypnotic qualities in the rhythm, and later the logics in the song are torn down, wiped to random events of powerful chaos. The title tune "Aum" rises from the debris, containing some menacing rhythmic patterns reminding Rush in its opening, soon giving room to screaming guitar wails screamed upon a powerful bass riff. The instruments conjure forth very atavistic and formless musical moments; Solemn ritualistic passage appears, containing sacred primitive chaos present in the early shamanistic krautrock records. I liked this longer adventure quite much, as it contained both long hypnotic elements, and also really great chaos guitar solo. The minimal passages where math and soothing space rock sounds united, created fine kicks and powerful cosmic visions. The levels escalate with logical steps as the trio's musical layers get more aggressively entwined, drilling to the deeper cores of Aum's vigorous vortex.

In the middle of the record resides a real null chamber, "Zero", a gigantic shapeless ambient form without any detectable features. There is a feeling of distance to this sonic source, and it is much more beautiful than some of the earkilling tracks from earlier records. Large musical mass waves beautifully like a cosmic horizon, giving delicate associations Pat Metheny's "Zero Tolerance for Silence". This void, an eye of a storm on the album, ends to stagnant long note, followed by "Rock Ist Krieg", a more aggressive rhythm killer. Groovy themes color this bass dominant tune, which reminds slightly the sounds of John Paul Jones' first DGM solo album. After few minutes changes take turn and the characteristic chaos gear is switched in, aimed for cruising to the ethereal tunnelvision of nocturnal highways, eventually leading to rhythmless noise-electronics of a dying car radio. Fine tides are rolling in the dynamics of this song, containing much happenings and interactive dialogue between players, and these vivid details contrasted with determined minimal motives make this quite interesting assault for my ears. Finally, similarly both positive and mystic theme leads to the exit of this album. Chanting increases the mythic and more sinister potential of the coda, and the meeting of the song's stagnant musical elements create fine hypnosis as finale.

On this record there are in my opinion more musical elements than on the earlier record of this year, and they are studied without haste, and also with more focused sense of style present. The structure of the album is fine, as the first six-minute track warms up quite pleasantly for the upcoming epics. These giants also differ from each other pleasantly, and the two shorter 8-9 minutes flashbacks following them create quite logical aural trip. So, the elements from earlier Seven That Spells recordings continue merging and evolving on the unholy altar of this fine psyched-out band, and I would certainly recommend this album for fans of aggressive psychedelic music.

"Modern, aggressive psychedelic wall of sound incorporating polymetrics and occasional Viking funeral rites; hailing from the 23rd century where rock is dead, Seven That Spells returned in time where its still possible to change the tragic course of the boring history."

Here's my introduction to the band Seven That Spells. These are the first and the last and the only words on the album.

Satan.. satan... satan... satan...

I don't know what these guys want from the poor guy named Satan but he's obviously not interested. This joke won't get the reader warmed up, but I'm okay as long as you continue reading. At this point someone stopped reading. Therefore I'm not so OK anymore. Let's proceed.

I've read and heard little about this band. I downloaded this one on christmas, they set the albums on the bandcamp account for free for one day or so. Wish I downloaded more albums! They're a space rock band, similar to a newer band I've listened to a year ago called Earthless, but for me, Seven That Spells are much better. They're not that brainless, to say it in the most wierd way that I could possibly choose.

The first track called "In" made a great impact on me. The repetitive cool guitar riff and the drumming. They are totally rocking out. The first thing you should know about this band is, they generally don't have strict song structures. It's generally one main guitar riff or rhythm, and on top of that, everyone's jamming like crazy. And these are truely talented people. The most obvious one is Niko Potočnjak, the guitarist. He rules his guitar to make psychedelic noises all over the place. Amp noises, guitar noises, everything counts. You can hear the Jimi Hendrix inside him noising around. There's not a single soft soloing on the album. Every solo on this album yells "Look at me I'm trippin!". The bass lines are so hypnotic. The drums never fail on bringing the energy. These musicians are top notch. They really can deliver some crazy jamming.

The second song, called "Aum" starts on a power chord hit on an interesting rhythm. For my own musical taste, I wish there were some more chord changes, as they're the "keys" to get the song on a more interesting form. I think this is an intended choice to gain more psychedelia than a structured song. The song gets on a different mood at the minute of 16. Cool jamming.

The third song, called "Zero" is mostly a chaotic guitar and amp noise, and nothing much. Nothing ever changes. If you guess this would end after a few minutes, you're terribly wrong. This will continue for 19 minutes. On this moment you should guess that this is no music for sitting with the glasses on (intelectual mode on) and caring about every little detail and change on the music. You can't do that here, because it simply doesn't change. It's just noise. I don't know if this gets you on a trippin mood easily, as I wasn't. I'm sure almost anyone would prefer any other song on the album to this one. Normally, I'm not the type that likes something like this, but now, I still don't like it. Haha, cruel.

"ROOOOCCKK IIISSSTTT KRIIIIEEEEGGG" is the name of the next song and the yelling at the very start of the song. It's much more structured than most of the stuff you hear on the album, and that bass line and the drums and the screaming guitar and the... This is a real trip. With "Aum" and "Rock Ist Krieg" these guys easily show that they are great at creating epics. Just listen to this one, this is a killer.

The last song is a reggea song, with soft feelings from start to the end. I'm just joking, this is another rocking out. It's called "Out". It's very similar to the first song, so it works easily on closing up the album. Satan... satan... satan... he's still not interested though. "Go away please!" he yells in my mind.

I had no intentions to give this band another chance till today, as I was pretty much convinced that they're just talented guys tripping out with noisy instruments and cool production. It's not a surprise that they are actually that itself. But they have this energy, cool riffing and total capability on their instruments. Those make this band worth-a-listen. This album is an exciting starter of a concept trilogy. Now I don't want to wait till the next christmas to hear more of this band...

A wonderful trip to the psych and kraut realms!

The title says it all: "The Death and Resurrection of Krautrock" is what this Croatian trio offers in this five-song album, which was released last year (2011) and which I fortunately downloaded when the band offered it as a free digital album in the Christmas season. This was my first experience with a full-length album from this band, and so far my clear favorite. The album has a total time of 60 minutes, where three tracks have an average length of 6-9 minutes, while the other two are longer journeys of almost 20 minutes each.

One of the crucial things for any album, is the choice of the opener track, in my opinion it is really important because it opens the gates to their music, so the listener can decide whether to keep listening or change the CD. Man, what "In" offers is a terrific repetitive, hypnotic, addictive trip to the psychedelic prog realm. The rhythm is the same during the whole track, the guitar never ceases to play the same notes, though one may think it is boring, it is not, because the beauty of this is different elements that are being added by synths while the seconds pass. I have adopted this as my totally favorite Seven That Spells song.

The first epic track is "Aum", whose 19 minutes are a feast of that mixure of psychedelic rock with krautrock (we know kraut has inherent psych tunes, but we know the difference) and even some other styles. The guitar work is fabulous during the whole track, making powerful long riffs (not in the metal sense) and implementing different colors and emotions. They would not success if there is not a competent drummer, and here they have a superb one! When the song reaches the seventh minute there is a change, it slows down a bit but seconds later it explodes once again, but now with some screaming voices that turn the song even more interesting. The vocals continue for some minutes, but then disappear and the hypnotic music keeps creating that psych and spacey trip.

"Zero" is the other long track, so we had two songs in a row with long duration (both could make easily one album, or at least an EP). There is a significant difference from the previous tracks, seems that here we have a moment of stagnation because the song does not take off, I mean, the first minutes are slower, repetitive but never hypnotizing, on the other hand there are moments where I actually felt disinterested. I had a problem in this track, because I was expecting it to change, but no, it maintained the same direction and goal (just like the previous tracks) but here I did not quite enjoy it, which makes it of course in my opinion, the only weak passage of the album, though pure kraut lovers would maybe love it.

With "Rock Ist Krieg" the faster, rockier and heavier sound returns but this time with a crazier style. The song starts with a man screaming the title, and then a great offer of drums and strings begin to build up an orgasmic structure, which reaches its climax after two minutes with a powerful and energetic guitar riff. Later bass and drums create an addictive background, while guitars make their job. I really love the energy here, it makes you feel alive and crazy. A fabulous track that made me wake up after the previous boredom.

The album finishes with "Out" which is another extraordinary song. The structure is repeated over and over, just like in the opener track, the first minute is introductory with a sound that does not change, but later a voice enters and can be truly appreciated. Here the same feeling than the first track, an addictive repetition that makes me feel trapped into their musical realm, to the point that I don't really want to escape, nor the album to finish. But well, after six minutes, it finishes.

I am fascinated with this album, though my problem with it, as I previously exposed, is the third track, if it was not included, I am almost sure that my rating would have been five solid stars, but now I will limit to four, since that track takes almost 20 minutes of the album. But well, the other four are what make it so great. Congrats to Seven That Spells for such a great release, and for the terrific music they create.

Enjoy it!