The Vintage Caravan: The Monuments Tour

Vintage hard rockers The Vintage Caravan are an Icelandic power trio that recalls the glorious 70's heyday of hard rock with a modern note-dense prog twist. With four full-length albums to their name, The Monuments Tour is (unsurprisingly) a live album chronicling the tour of their most recent album (also unsurprisingly) Monuments. The three musketeers of the frozen island put on quite the show if this release displays even a fraction of what they are capable of in a live setting.

The Vintage Caravan gives me serious MK 3 Deep Purple vibes, with funky and bluesy stomp and pomp a plenty. In addition to that, there's a noticeable prog-rock injection in most of their songs via rapid-fire guitar and bass runs and rhythms that stop on a dime. Safe to say that if that sounds like something you'd be interested in (and you're reading a review on Sea of Tranquility, so I'd say that's a sound bet) you already know. Not being acquainted with the band before this release myself, I immediately found the more aggressive and rocking tracks here to be home runs. Songs like opener "Whisper" and "Forgotten" are just impossible to dislike if you are a fan of hard-hitting, melodic rock.

There are also moments of Psychedelia on the slower tracks, and that to me definitely drags down the momentum of their overall show, but the pacing on "The Monuments Tour" is pretty good overall, and doesn't take its foot off the gas very often. The sound is spectacular here; everything is crystal clear and you can hear every single note flawlessly, be it the fuzzy and dirty guitar, thumpy bass, or busy drums. I made a comparison to Purple earlier, and while the funky/bluesy instrumentation will conjure up memories of "Stormbringer" on cocaine, the vocals are a bit weaker than I would like. I can't help but imagine how a voice like Glenn Hughes' would absolutely be right at home here. Now, you can say "well no shit, he's one of the greatest singers ever" and you would be correct, but a man can dream. The vocals on display here are more than competent, and the fact that guitarist/lead vocalist �"skar Logi �gústsson can play these preposterously complex riffs and sing at the same time is more than enough to be satisfactory.

The Monuments Tour' is a bit frontloaded, as the more propulsive and memorable tracks are in the first half of the album. The album is closed with 2 9-ish minute epics that somewhat leave the whole thing in a bit of a lull, but it's hard to not be impressed with what The Vintage Caravan do when they fire on all cylinders. This is a tight, talented band that plays a crowd-pleasing style that will surely please most anyone with a taste for those 70's glory days of rock.

Tracklist:
1. Whispers (Live)
2. Crystallized (Live)
3. Reflections (Live)
4. Innerverse (Live)
5. Forgotten (Live)
6. Can’t Get You Off My Mind (Live)
7. Psychedelic Mushroom Man (Live)
8. Cocaine Sally (Live)
9. Hell (Live)
10. Babylon (Live)
11. On The Run (Live)
12. Expand Your Mind (Live)
13. Clarity (Live)

Added: January 12th 2024
Reviewer: Brandon Miles
Score:
Related Link: Band @ Bandcamp
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Language: english

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