Release Date: March 06th 2026. Record Label: Apollon Records. Formats: DD/Vinyl
Black Smoke Rising - Tracklisting
1.Crimson Rain
2.Bound To Fall
3.Black Smoke
4.Calling Your Name
5.Attergangar
6.The Thrill
7.Stillferd
8.The Silence
9.Ride On
10.Spread Like Wildfire
Members
Vegard Bachmann Strand, guitars , vocals
Jakob Særvoll, keys, vocals
Samuel Robson Gardner, bass guitar
Sivert Kleiven Larsen, drums
Review
Black Smoke Rising is the second album from Proto-Doomsters Gjenferd who build their music on a huge wave of Seventies Rock and Pure Hard Rock nostalgia. There’s a massive influx of Blues, Psych and Stoner Rock melodies though the band are perhaps inspired by the likes of Black Sabbath, Deep Purple and Blue Oyster Cult with modern day bands such as GHOST and Uncle Acid. There’s less theatrical pomp with Gjenferd who solely focus on Classic Rock romanticism appearing through the lyrics and subtle Progressive sounds that appear throughout.
Opening tracks Crimson Rain and Bound To Fall both do a sterling job in creating the musical boundaries that Gjenferd play on the record. The Blues Rock grooves are the dominant theme within ppening track Crimson Rain with a classic Seventies Rock drive developing that solely relies on Proto-Rock vibes with the great vowels from Vegard Bachmann Strand and Jakob Særvoll adding an extra level of maturity to Gjenferd’s music.
Second song Bound To Fall sees a subtle Post-Doom and Psych Stoner Rock energy starting to emerge before Gjenferd return to their Proto-Doom and Classic Rock ways. The music does become instantly louder and perhaps modern which shows that Gjenferd aren’t afraid to inject that “modern day” sound into their music that mostly comes from the jagged rhythm section and freaky guitars.
The next part of the album sees Gjenferd add areas of “SPICE” into their music with eras of music combining for a thoroughly original sound with that grounded Blues Rock aspect selling the whole creative vision especially on tracks Black Smoke and Calling Your Name.
The trippy Organs and Keyboards add a subversive style of Occult Rock to become part of the action. This first part of the album is “HEAVY” but I wouldn’t class this as “HEAVY METAL” but one more closely aligned to “HEAVY ROCK” or “DOOM ROCK”. Though, that doesn’t stop Gjenferd pushing their music ever closely to the edge of HEAVY METAL with a fantastic sludgy environment that appears mostly on Black Smoke..
The second half of Black Smoke Rising offers a slightly different musical trajectory with Gjenferd moving into the era of Eighties Hard Rock and Heavy Metal. Tracks such as The Thrill, The Silence, Ride On and Like Wildfire combine classic hooks and proto based melodies once more with a truly convincing storytelling aspect that appears through their superb lyrics.
There’s a sudden shift of Prog Rock awareness that continues to develop but Gjenferd always have some mighty fine creative tricks up their sleeves to inject a refreshing style of Classic Rock and current Psychedelic musical swagger within the final two tracks of Ride On and Like Wildfire.
The majority of the tracks on the album are superbly structured with excellent production values giving Black Smoke Rising a refreshing “RETRO” feel that makes you feel this album could have easily been recorded and released anytime over the last 50 years of Heavy Metal whilst still being quintessentially modern.
Black Smoke Rising is a resounding success on every level and if you’re a longtime fan or dedicated follower of Classic Hard Rock records then Gjenferd will no doubt impress the HELL OUT OF YOU!!!.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Gjenferd and Apollon Records for the promo.
Black Smoke Rising is available to buy now on CD/DD/Vinyl via Apollon Records.
Links
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