Vitskär Süden – Vessel

 

 

Vitskär Süden – Vessel
Ripple Music – 2024
Rock, Prog, Psych
Rated: *****

They’re out there. The originals. The outsiders. The ones that will forever and always follow their own path. Damn the consequences. The cats that captain the Vitskär Süden tattered sails and barnacled ship, belong to that category. For if you’ve listened to their self-titled debut album and follow-up record The Faceless King, you could have easily imagined them going forth on soundtracking the fantasy world they’ve created in the dark progressive, dungeon noir sensory rich type of music they produced for those amazing two albums. But you can guess where that intro (and very long sentence) is leading up to. Here’s that obvious statement: the new album Vessel did not go that route. The fearful intensity of the songs turn the new Vessel record almost Biblical at times, horror themed, not in the hell-fire flashing before your eyes fashion, but in a dread below the placid water kind of way. H.P. Lovecraft to waltz with and move romantically through your magical hallucination. And where those earlier albums were full of imagery that were trust upon you, landscapes to traverse and to get familiar with, the new Vessel record feels like it’s meant to stay hazy, veiled and almost beyond your reach. Like that fabled veil that can only be lifted through dreams or death. And all that heaviness you might feel is offset by shining, at time almost lighter then air or exalted vocals, and thoughtful progressive compositions. The gradual procession steers towards pious ceremony, emotive and almost bursting with gravitas. There is so much space within each track, that you can hear every instrument breathe and place itself in context to where the song is leading you. Added touches of violin and cello in certain songs or the sheer amount of synth and piano offer up extremely rich instrumentation, without ever sounding cluttered. Cause we cannot state this enough, Vessel is wide, vast and open source progressive rock, there for you to fill in with your imagination. There’s no shortage in glorious moments, but it is the overall and total experience that is most captivating. There is a deliberate movement from each track into the next, and the full forty minutes of Vessel is the carrier that will whisk you away into the Vitskär Süden dream sequence.

(Written by JK)

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