Norway isn’t a country you would predominantly associate with metal which wasn’t of the grim, kvlt and frostbitten variety, but thanks to bands like Lonely Kamel and Audrey Horne, this is slowly changing. El Caco (Spanish for Thief) join the aforementioned in bringing a real raw stoner-come-grunge groove which makes a rather refreshing
Opening up the album is “Curious”. It has a real retro rock feel with bags of groove to it and a very stoner rock tone. Loud and full of energy, this lively track has an infectious bouncy feel and a real punchy delivery with the thick guitars. With great drum patterns and a really unique vocal delivery, a hybrid of Chris Cornell and Scott Weiland, its simple approach of loud in the verse, louder in the chorus gets this off to a flier. Following on is “Sickness” which is heavier and slightly slower. With a darker feel to the delivery, it has a steady pace with some seriously pounding bass which adds some weight to it, especially in the chorus. There’s a great lead melody break which has a slightly sinister feel and it works great when the harmony line of it comes in before it smashes back into the huge sounding chorus for the final run.
“Ambivalent” brings the pace back. With a livelier sound to it, the simple melodic riffs have a great hook and before long you’ll find yourself humming along to it. With a cleaner vocal delivery which acts as a melody line, it works great in the verse with its slightly more subdued approach before it all kicks off for the chorus. Louder, heavier and more passion in the delivery, it really comes to life and sounds quite similar to the “Superunknown” era Soundgarden stuff. It’s a simple, straight forward track and it’s great! “Reach Out” slows it down again, bringing in a slow droning feel which has a hypnotic quality about it. Slow in the verses with a rich bass sound, it has a very gradual building feel to it, leaving you waiting for it to kick in and when the chorus comes in, it really comes alive. Harshly semi-roared vocals along with massive crushing riffs make for a fantastic switch up and this repeats until the mid-section where the instrumental break brings in the twisting harmony lines and the low, moody sounding section which once again explodes to life for the big ending.
“The Silver Light” brings a real classic hard rocking feel in its intro which has a fantastic hip-shaking rhythm to it. The slightly raw vocals and retro sound work fantastic here and the sharp, punchy delivery of the short chorus works enough to set up for a decent mini-lead which seems to speed the track up a little. It has that Kyuss vibe to it (Think Green Machine) – a real attitude filled rocking groove number with a catchy beat and good tempo and despite it only being a short track, it’s definitely one which will remain stuck in your head! “In Limbo” goes back to the slower paced approach which opens up with a building feel into a chunky series of riffs. With a more subdued vocal delivery and some clever melodic phrasing of the guitars, it has a good build up feel to it and this is emphasised in the pre-chorus section where both the musical and vocal delivery kicks up a gear and when the chorus kicks in, the vocals are really powerful and come across strong and solid. With an interesting harmony section after the second chorus, it slows down a little, changing the mood of the song slightly before it goes back into the final chorus to end it.
“In Space, All Huge Beasts Just See” is an instrumental number which brings the more psychedelic edge to the band’s sound. Using layers of reverb and delay to build a hypnotic and spaced out massive sound, it goes through phases of just idling by with little fuss to full on unravelling of entropic proportions before it breaks to the heavy section which hammers away with some pounding bass, drums and guitars before it starts to tail off again, leading us into the final track. “The Possessed” closes the album and as you’d expect, it’s got a big sound to it with plenty of punch and bite. The riffs are mostly groove driven with some subtle melodic lines slipped in there in the moody verse, but the intricate and hypnotic drum patterns in the verse really capture the imagination, building the anticipation to a sustainable level to keep interest and still allow you to focus on other sections of the track. The chorus is pretty standard – bigger sound, harder delivery and this increased presence slips into the second verse, giving the song a more overall well rounded song. In all, it’s a great track, well put together and it closes the album rather well.
In all, “7” is a fantastic album. Just shy of 30 minutes, this album has huge replay value and as soon as one song gets stuck in your head, another will be hot on its heels to try and replace it. El Caco have managed to get a real energetic sound, taking some of the best bits from classic rock, grunge and stoner rock and give it a great dose of infectious groove to create a well rounded album. This is required listening for 2016!
(8.5/10 Fraggle)
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