KINGDOM OF OBLIVION

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.