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The Vintage Caravan: Voyage

(Melodic) Hard/Heavy Rock

4.0/5.0

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Sena / Nuclear Blast Records
by Craig Hartranft,  02.01.2014

While not the first band from Iceland for me to review, they are few and far between. Hailing from Reykjavik, The Vintage Caravan delivers their third long-player, Voyage. They're a certain familiarity here as like the Icelandic brethren the Brain Police, the trio plays melodic heavy rock.

The Vintage Caravan:: look cold.

The roots are classic rock but, bypassing the Eighties, TVC goes deeper into the Seventies and even the Sixties mixing in blues, psychedelic, and groove rock of the day. While not wanting to call them retro-rock, you'll anything from Black Sabbath to Deep Purple, Cream to King Crimson, Mountain to Cactus, and more. It's a strange thing, these youngsters must have been pilfering records from the parent's (or grandparent's) collection.

Nevertheless, Voyage is strong stuff, and the band does justice to that classic era and it venerable sound. Cocaine Sally is smart, quick, bluesy rocker that traverses territory between Cream and Mountain. Speaking of the latter, Winterland gets all that subtle and psychedelic smoothness that Leslie West and company could muster in arrangement, like Theme From an Imaginary Western, yet still bumping it a notch in the end. Another song that accomplishes some of the same is Do You Remember, yet turns more on the gentle side of subtleness.

And Óskar Logi Ágústsson has some enviable guitar skills. He's both excellent and raging ripping off his lead in M.A.R.S.W.A.T.T., a song that has bouncy hard rock groove. True to their classic rock influences, The Vintage Caravan uses the venerable tool of the trade, the cow bell, all over Midnight Meditation, another groove monster. The apex of the album may be the closing piece, The King's Voyage, a riff heavy and groove busting number that mixes tempos, but also allows Ágústsson to again surprise with his feisty guitar licks. Indeed, for classic heavy rock, Iceland's The Vintage Caravan is formidable band, exploding with talent and ideas, and delivering the goods. Hopefully many will catch on. Recommended.

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For classic heavy rock, Iceland's The Vintage Caravan is formidable band, exploding with talent and ideas, and delivering the goods. Hopefully many will catch on. Recommended.

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Three years have passed since Sweden's Cruzh dropped their second long-player, Tropical Thunder, also introducing their new singer, Alex Waghorn. Now the band returns with The Jungle Revolution ... [ Read More ]