Spirits of The Dead – Spirits of The Dead

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As the resurgence of retro-styled rock and metal continues and bands like Witchcraft and festivals like Roadburn grow in popularity, more new bands are getting the chance to create genuine rock music, and Norway’s Spirits of The Dead are one of the latest. Plenty of early early Sabbath moments on tracks like Red give the record an authentic sound, and although it’s not heavy all of the time, even bordering on chart appeal with some of the quirky stomps like White Lady/Black Rave, elements of 1960s psychedelia (My Wild Dream) and monolithic, fuzzy riffs (T.I.T. (Traveller In Time)) reaffirm its credentials. The Muse-isms of Fields of Gold could be dropped and not missed, while the classic doom of their eponymous eight-minute epic closer are probably where metal fans would like to see them go more often. Ragnar Vikse’s suits all of the styles they tackle on this record, and their versatility is impressive, if perhaps unlikely to entirely find favour with many listeners. From a metal perspective the title track is the stand-out (and from a musicality one too), but someone looking for something a bit different in the slew of bands trying to recreate the late ’60s and early ’70s since Wolfmother had a hit single could do worse than start here.

Written by Andy Lye
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