THE CRUCIBLE

The second part of Motorpsycho's Gullvåg trilogy came about 2 years after The Tower, and in that time the band went on to release 3 live albums in between, and toured quite a bit. That aside, their next album of The Crucible is quite an amazing, though interesting black sheep in the Gullvåg trilogy.

I consider this to be the black sheep of Motorpsycho's Gullvåg trilogy due to some factors, such as it being only a mere 40 minutes in length, and the fact it feels a lot closer in vein to their older early 90s sound than The Tower ever did. I think if the Tower was the spiritual successor of The Death Defying Unicorn, The Crucible is the spiritual successor to their first three albums of Lobotomizer, Demon Box, and Timothy's Monster. I say this since this album is very heavy, and I'd say it takes more cues from stoner rock and grunge than progressive rock, though this isn't without looking at the 20 minute titular epic.

The sound here has a lot of heavy riffs, trucking drums, and a very clear sense of massive scales, while still keeping things down to size. This is best shown with the first track of Psychotzar, which happens to be one of my favorite Motorpsycho tracks ever. It is so rambunctious, with an almost perfect layout and progression that makes it a joy to listen and go through in my opinion. I also have to take a moment to give my appreciation to the two other tracks of Lux Aeterna, and the title track as they showcase tiny moments of more progressive rock flavors here, with the title track obviously gonna be the most evident of this as it composes this lofty jam that is similar to Gullible Travails from Heavy Metal Fruit, though with a clearer focus on jamming, and I think this more hard hitting sound being a more primary focus here than the proggy aspect of it all actually makes this one of my favorite Motorpsycho albums.

I think Motorpsycho, as a band, can totally make sounds like this not only work in most contexts, but in most progressive rock ideals. While the more intricate proggy sounds take a backseat, I think this album still has some amazing performances, and as such I don't really mind.

This is quite an underrated album. Sure, compared to The Tower and The All Is One it might not be the most grand adventure, nor is it the longest, but even then when you have 3 tracks that are pretty much all stellar in sound and layout, I think this record should get a bit more love, because I certainly think it is one the band's most endearing records yet.