Monday, 25 June 2018

Sun Voyager - Seismic Vibes (Album Review)


Release date: April 20th 2018. Label: King Pizza Records. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl

Seismic Vibes – Tracklisting

1.Trip 03:43
2.Open Road 03:52
3.Caves of Steel 03:26
4.Stellar Winds 03:38
5.Harebrained 04:09
6.Too Much 05:00
7.Psychic Lords 03:35
8.God is Dead 07:16

Members

Mike Hammond
Stefan Mersch
Kyle Beach

Review

Seismic Vibes is the debut album from Psychedelic Stoner Rockers - Sun Voyager, with the band playing a heavy amount of Spaced Out Rock. The album is quite trippy and moves at a very cool pace. The music never becomes repetitive or boring. As the band play to their strengths and never waiver.

Opening track - Trip - is aptly named as Sun Voyager will take you on a heavy psychedelic spaced out riff-fest with elements of Blues Rock appearing here and there.

Sun Voyager has a lot in common with fellow Psych Blues/Space/Stoner Rockers - GEEZER. As both bands build their musical foundations on Blues Rock and heavy spaced out interludes.

Sun Voyager live up to the spaced out heaviness of their music superbly well. Especially on songs such as: Open Road, Caves Of Steel, Stellar Winds, Psychic Lands and the epic riffs of Psychic Lords. Sun Voyager sure likes to move from different eras of Stoner Rock and Rock & Roll on this album. As the album includes elements of sixties, seventies, nineties and even modern day sounds.

There is a major The Doors influence on this record and perhaps Hawkwind as well. Sun Voyager sound very different on all the songs held on the album. All very different but still offering a groovy psychedelic vibe. The only part I struggled with the album is when Sun Voyager tries to add a more doom and gloom atmosphere. Especially on the song Too Much. It's a good song but the doomier elements didn't really work with the trippy psychedelic riffs. I may change my mind on this song within time.

The production is excellent and is one of the albums main strengths. As Sun Voyager create a very strange sounding album and it needed top-notch production to bring their weird and wonderful ideas to life. The instrumental work from Sun Voyager is excellent as well. With the band keeping the whole mood vibrant and fresh for out. Some parts of the album could have done with faster riffs but Sun Voyager off-set that by playing some truly heavy sounds that you wouldn't expect on an album such as this.

Seismic Vibes will need a few in-depth listens to understand and fully appreciate what Sun Voyager has accomplished with this album. There are a lot of different sounds and ideas to fully figure out. Though it's a good thing that Seismic Vibes has quite an addictive edge and you will be listening to this record for days on end.

Seismic Vibes is a superbly entertaining album and one that will have you keep coming back for multiple listens.

Excellent and Highly Recommended.

Words by Steve Howe

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