Our friends over at Transubstans Records have once again produced another solid entry in the retro sweepstakes with the latest from Swedish band The Crystal Caravan, titled With Them You Walk Alone. This six-piece band show their love for Uriah Heep, Deep Purple, The Doors, Danzig, Steppenwolf, and Atomic Rooster on this latest release, which is a dramatic platter of heavy guitar riffs, powerful vocals, driving keyboards, and memorable arrangements.
Vocalist Niklas "RG" Gustafsson soars over most of the heavy rocking songs here with his Jim Morrison-meets-Glenn Danzig approach, as he powers through the crunchy riffs, haunting Mellotron, and spacey Moog synths of the crushing, somewhat psychedelic title track, the hard rocking "Hour of the Wolf", as well as the more textured, prog/folk/psych piece "Against The Rising Tide". The bleak, almost doom laden "Roses And Morphine" has elements of The Doors and The Jefferson Airplane, until massive, Black Sabbath inspired riffing joins in on the fun, while the heavy rock freakout of "Brick By Brick" will instantly appeal to fans of fellow Swedes Witchcraft with its mix of '70s styled hard rock and Sabbath/Pentagram inspired doom. Closer "Drifting" is an atmospheric ballad complete with dreamy vocals and an emotional wah-wah drenched guitar solo.
With 6 songs, With Them You Walk Alone perfectly gives the listener just what they need and doesn't overstay its welcome, but more importantly there's the right amount of variety and classic sounds here that makes it retro but not everly so. If you love '70s inspired heavy rock, prog, and psych, but with a modern flavor, you'll need to investigate this one pronto.
Track Listing
01 Hour Of The Wolf
02 With Them You Walk Alone
03 Against The Rising Tide
04 Roses And Morphine
05 Brick By Brick
06 Drifting
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