Tuesday 12 September 2017

Echolot - Volva (Album Review)


Release date: October 06th 2017. Label: Czar Of Revelations. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl

Volva – Tracklisting

II
III
IV
V

Members

Lukas Fürer
Jonathan Schmidli
Renato Matteucci

Review

Echolot is a band who I didn't know much about before listening to their debut album - Volva. Comprising of four lengthy compositions that merges Psychedelic Rock, Prog Rock, Doom and Heavy Stoner Sounds. Imagine a more experimental version of Elder but with Echolot still creating their own sound. Echolot album is progressively heavy and spaced out on different parts of the album. With the shortest song clocking under eleven minutes. Echolot are a band who creates cinematic soundscapes to build their heavy and dense doom based sounds upon.

Opening track - II - starts with a slowly played rhythm before expanding into a heavier style of progressive doom based Stoner Rock with trippy flourishes of psych sounds adding a subtle echo effect. The vocals are not the most polished but they're supremely delivered with style and confidence. The ambient sounds add real to the whole tone of the album. Echolot find a way to include heavier sludgier guitars towards the end of the song.

Second track - III - is another heavy ride of spaced out doom sounds with the band feeling more comfortable creating their doom/psychedelic environment. The vocals have a classic prog rock feel. As Echolot feel influenced by Monster Magnet TAB era. The droned out guitars soon give way to a more standard heavy stoner/psych rock sound. Heavy slow played riffs that never outstay their welcome as Echolot try their hand at a more progressive rock approach. The music drifts from many heavy different musical environments with Echolot writing lyrics that have a slight All Them Witches influence. Very Americana in parts but still wildly addictive.

The final two songs IV and V offers almost thirty three minutes of intense psych/prog based riffs with Echolot proving once again highlighting their Doom/Stoner Metal credentials. With expertly played music matched against superbly sung vocals and the band showing a keen interest in sonic experimentation. IV is a great song indeed but it takes a while to fully get going. With the band opting for a slower style of doom/prog rock. It can be very emotional at times with the lyrics and vocals having quite a heartfelt approach.

The final song - V - offers a more surreal and heavy affair with trippy ambient noises being the main key when played against the heavy psych/stoner riffs. Volva is expertly produced from start to finish with the sound of the album having the right balance between the heavier and quieter moments of the album. Volva is a complex album with many different ideas and themes running throughout.

With the album running under 55 minutes, the album could have easily become lost with the many different ideas that Echolot created on Volva. However, Echolot have created a stunning and wildly exciting release. Fans of Psych/Doom/Stoner based music should urgently check out now.

Words by Steve Howe

Thanks to Frederyk at Czar Of Revelations. Volva will be available to buy on CD/DD via Czar Of Revelations from October 06th 2017.

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