Once again, we look to Norway for some of 2024's exciting new music, and here we have Bergen's Gjenford with their self-titled, Hammond organ and guitar-saturated debut. Not quite metal, not quite prog, not quite doom, but certainly containing enough elements of all of these, in addition to good old classic hard rock, blues, and psychedelia. "High Octane" busts right out of the gate in Look At Yourself era Uriah Heep fashion, while "Starless" hits on some of the haunting hard rock of Wishbone Ash circa Argus, with the extra added bonus of heaping amounts of Hammond organ thrown into the mix. "Burning Soil" lumbers, bubbles, and boils, complete with blistering, doom-laden guitars and those wonderful Jon Lord-styled Hammond organ blasts, while the creepy "Restless Nights" will satisfy any fan of the darker music of acts such as Atomic Rooster, Blue Oyster Cult, and Black Widow. "Beneath the Wave" also will scratch that itch for dark, late '60s/early '70s psychedelia, though the riff will sound all too familiar to any Led Zeppelin fan, and the Mellotron comes out for the brooding, eerie closer "All That Remain is Haze", easily one of the album's best tracks and a must for any fan of haunting, doomy hard rock music.
No, it's not overly original, but this is so well done if you like vintage heavy rock sounds of the late '60s and early '70s, all painted with a splash of prog and psych to make things even more interesting. I'm really looking to see where these guys go next. Hopefully, they will also give us a little more material, as this one barely clocks in over 30 minutes.
Track Listing
1.
High Octane 03:51
2.
Starless 07:17
3.
Burning Soil 04:43
4.
Restless Nights 05:07
5.
Beneath The Wave 04:03
6.
All That Remain Is Haze 07:57
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