Labelled as ‘Norway’s finest psychedelic stoner band’ Spirits of the Dead are ready to unleash their third album Rumours of a Presence, recorded in some of the most isolated parts of Norway.
Sometimes it is hard to be an optimist. Here in the privileged Western world, we live in an age where most people spend their entire lives transfixed by glittering pixels on a smartphone screen, seemingly impervious to everything else that is going on around them, immune to the magic that sparkles and flashes in the air, even dead to the provocative crackle of synapses hidden within their own weather-beaten skulls. But that magic definitely exists. It exists in the music of Spirits Of The Dead, the modern era’s most skilled and soulful psychedelic rock protagonists and the keepers of the ancient flame of altered sonic states. It exists elsewhere too, of course, but Spirits Of The Dead are a band that have taken up permanent residence in the shadowy recesses of restless minds.
These Norwegian seers may seem to fit neatly into that cosy cabal of retrogressive rock ‘n’ roll bands that are in permanent nostalgic thrall to the great guitar-driven works of the late 60s and early 70s, and yes, there is definitely a superficial adherence to that arcane code buried deep within the songs that they have presented to the world thus far. But there is something else going on here, something idiosyncratic and mesmerising, something that defies description and dares the imagination to throw off its shackles to the known and the now. Maybe that magic lurks in the valves and wires of the analogue equipment that gives Spirits Of The Dead their timeless but timely sound. Maybe it lurks in the gaps between the warm, distorted tones that resonate every time this band pick up their instruments and channel their unerring creative pulse. Maybe it cannot be found at all. It matters not, because Spirits Of The Dead have drawn inspiration and solace from a bottomless well of musical inspiration, harnessing the riffs and melodies and subtly intricate arrangements of the fines psychedelic and progressive rock and filtering it all back through the prism of their own brilliant creativity.
This is music that matters and moves. These are songs that surround you like the warmth of a brightly-coloured cloak amid the icy, hostile squall of life’s never-ending blizzard. These are songs that send waves of exhilarating electricity through your bloodstream, causing your heartbeat to quicken and your limbs to flail in breathless pursuit of spectral grooves yet to be tamed.
Sometimes it is hard to be an optimist, but when Spirits Of The Dead are plugged in and letting the magic flow through their fingertips, this moment in time feels like something to be celebrated, the future looks bright and the world is a weird, wild and wonderful place. All you need to do is listen…
New Album ‘Rumours of a Presence’
Released December 9th on The End Records
