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.

At the start of the year, Norwegian prog-rockers Motorpsycho announced a new full-length album, which they described as a return to a more direct "heavy" sound akin to some of their 1990s output. That intrigued me. Although I liked a lot the all-encompassing prog rock extravaganza of their most recent albums (2020's The All Is One is an absolute masterpiece), I missed the simpler heavy rock of some of their earlier works. Kingdom of Oblivion was eventually released in April, sporting the same line-up responsible for Motorpsycho's last couple of records, with Bent Sæther on lead vocals and bass/guitar/keyboards, Hans Magnus Ryan on lead guitar and keyboards, and Tomas Järmyr on drums. Swedish guitarist, and long-time collaborator of the band, Reine Fiske is also listed as a contributor on the record.

The first time I listened to Kingdom of Oblivion, two things immediately stood out for me. First, as promised, the music is indeed more metallic than before, edging on the heavy/space rock side of the progressive scale, with generous echoes of Black Sabbath and Hawkwind running through the album. Songs like "The Waning", the title-track, and "The United Debased" all develop from simple but effective bass grooves or guitar riffs that are repeated obsessively as the song builds and builds amidst seas of distortion and trippy keyboards. Järmyr's drumming is perhaps less spectacular than on the previous couple of albums, but it's effective and keeps a good groove, which is what the songs really need. The vocals are often edgy, almost angry, at times channelling the spirit of an Ozzy of time past.

The second aspect of Kingdom of Oblivion that stood out is that, Motorpsycho being Motorpsycho, this couldn't "just" be a heavy rock album. Things were bound to get weirder. And indeed they do. The third track "Lady May" marks the first deviation from the promised heavy sound of the album. It's a pastoral little piece with acoustic guitar and ethereal vocals that could have been lifted from a 1970s Canterbury record. The following track "The United Debased" goes back to the heavy rock canon, deceiving the listener in believing that, perhaps, "Lady May" was just a sporadic interlude. But no, things just get weirder and weirder after that, with "The Watcher" and "Dreamkiller". The first is a soundscape made up of ambient noises, whispers and a hypnotic bass line. "Dreamkiller" develops from a psychedelic vocal choir into a hellish dreamscape built around a sinister guitar riff and a magnetic and trippy mellotron motif. By the time the acoustic instrumental piece "Atet" comes by, the listener has all but forgotten that Kingdom of Oblivion was supposed to be a simple heavy rock album.

The last part of the record marks a return to the initial metallic sound, but without forgetting all the weirdness that has passed by. It's the best of both worlds, exemplified by tracks like "At Empire's End" (probably the best song of the record, built around a formidable guitar riff), the oddly mutant "The Hunt" (starting all gentle and pastoral with flutes and acoustic guitars, before a groovy guitar ostinato makes space for something that sounds like a hissing teapot - I kid you not!), and the aptly titled "The Transmutation of Cosmoctopus Lurker". If you are wondering what the hell a cosmoctopus is, I'll tell you: it's the bastard child of Tony Iommi and a creature that came out from Alice in Wonderland, all spaced-out and dazed.

Kingdom of Oblivion is yet another great album from the Stakhanovs of progressive rock. With 24 full-lengths over 30 years of career, the Norwegians are surely one of the most prolific rock bands on earth. Astonishingly, they also almost never ever drop the ball: the quality of each new album remains high, release after release. Kingdom of Oblivion is no exception. It's not a super-easy album to get into, because it's weird. But I grew to love it because of this. It's one of those records that take you by hand and lead you on a trip where nothing is like it seems, and where everything is allowed to grow, develop and mutate into something else. We need more albums like this: metallic and heavy, but also adventurous, challenging, and daring. In four words: a work of art.

[Originally written for The Metal Observer]

Even for a band like Motorpsycho, I bet it'd be hard to make another album that could live up with an amazing trilogy as good as the Gullvåg trilogy. So, for their 2021 follow up record, the band would release Kingdom Of Oblivion, an album that would be a lot denser than its predecessors, while still trying something new.

What is found on Kingdom Of Oblivion is a lot more rooted in hard rock and heavy psychedelic rock sounds, like Heavy Metal Fruit and The Crucible, though the difference here is that the rock aspects are a lot more focused on here than those two records. What I like about Kingdom Of Oblivion is that it feels like a strong tribute to the old hard rock sounds of the 70s and early 80s with bands like Led Zeppelin, Rush, Deep Purple, and Black Sabbath, whilst also paying some homage to the stoner rock scene of groups like Queens Of The Stone Age, Kyuss, Clutch, and Elder. It all feels like this one tribute to all those great bands whilst also keeping in touch with their Norwegian prog rock sound.

I also really like how more rock focused this is compared to other releases. The more heavy prog nature this album composes is quite the treat to my ears, and the more guitar driven pieces like The Waning, The United Debased, and At Empire's End are always a treat to listen to.

However, I feel as though this album doesn't really get those strong strokes of genius their other records deal with for me. While the music on here is good, I don't think there are any really amazing moments found within, or any moments that made me really excited, unlike what could be found on Here Be Monsters or Little Lucid Moments. It feels like the band took a few steps back in terms of musical prowess that, while it definitely has great songs to be found, do not quite hold a candle to some of their masterpieces before.

Despite my critiques, I do think this is a very enjoyable album. Definitely not their best, but not their worst. I think any Motorpsycho record can certainly still be enjoyable, even the ones I am not quite fond of, so if you want some fun hard prog rock music then check this one out.

Before I even heard of this band they had already released 14 studio albums, it's like they already had a career before I became aware of them. I'll be honest there's not much I've heard prior to "Death Defying Unicorn" that I like. Just my tastes in music but man that five album run starting with that great album I just mentioned with Stale Storlokken helping out right up to "The Tower" is a great run. This doesn't include "Begynnilser" which I don't own. I took a break from buying music from 2018 until early 2022 so I missed "Kingdom Of Oblivion" from 2021 and promise to also get to "The Crucible", "The All Is The One" and "Ancient Astronauts" in chronological order unlike this one.

I just wanted to hear this one because of it being advertised as their heaviest record. It's also a long one at over 70 minutes and there's a lot of social commentary here. The liner notes tell us who is playing but not what they are playing. At the bottom of the "Thankyous" is this long word of over 50 letters no capitals, no spaces and it's kind of funny when you do add spaces and capitals as in "Bent is loud. Tomas is louder. Reine is amazing. But only Snah is god."

Magnus Ryan and Bent Saether have been together since day one of this band going through several drummers along the way. Reine Fiske does add guitar on several tracks as a guest. This is a pretty strong album and for sure 4 stars but at that length they could have pared it down and made it better. I understand though that they wanted to balance the heaviness and it's the lighter tunes that don't do a lot for me so I wish they had have kept with the original plan of making this just about all heavy.

"Lady May" with those intricate guitar melodies and multi-vocals is nice but out of place. "The Watcher" is another one but this is interesting because it is experimental with lots of atmosphere and spoken words. "Atet" is another laid back short track that I guess provides a bumper. Even the closer with the mellotron and haunting sounds for a minute but sadly changes to an underwhelming ending to this record.

Top five includes the opener "The Waning(Pt. 1&2" just the heaviness and riffs with vocals and when the vocals step aside here comes the guitar solo. This track ends really well. The title track is a top five again powerful stuff. Some social commentary here and this is both catchy and relentless although the final minute is more laid back. "The United Debased" is another top five a 9 minute tour de force. SABBATH-styled vocals and some great guitar. "At Empire's End" contrasts the heavy and light really well and at 8 1/2 minutes lots of time to do that. And finally the longest track "The Transmutation Of Cosmoctopus Lurker" at almost 11 minutes brings us to my final top five and it should have been the closer.

A four star record but for me it's not as good as the previous five I own by them.