Swedish groove outfit Transport League are back in action once again after the madness of the pandemic has subsided to a degree and it looks like they are trying to get their momentum back to where it was before everything went to shit! If you are already familiar with the band, you know exactly what this entails. For those less familiar with the band, here is some brief exposition; formed in 1994, 9 albums to their name and a gratuitous offering of groove, doom, sludge and rawness! For a brief comparison/what to expect; Clutch, Corrosion Of Conformity and Cathedral with a little bit of early 2000’s alternative vibes.
I first discovered this four-piece groove machine back in 2019 when they supported the phenomenal A Pale Horse Named Death. It was a fun night and the contrast of ‘Boogie from Hell’ meets overpowering doom worked well. It also seems like from that tour, a lasting friendship was struck between the two bands because Sal Abruscato features on this release, along with Christian Sture of Heal. It seems that this tour was a stepping stone to big things for the band, but as mentioned previously, 2020-mid-2021 seemed to cancel everyone’s plans and things were put into perspective for a lot of folks. With the album ready to record, the band threw themselves into the studio and laid down their grooves to the backdrop of a confusing mess of urgency and global panic, a quality which is reflected in some of the tracks on the release; the release has a live-take energy about it, almost like the tracks were recorded from the stage and not a studio, it has some solid atmospheric work with moody breakdowns and massive sounds… It all seems good on paper, but the burning question is, can this album with the title which translates to caesarean section begin a new (musical) life for the boogie machine?
To answer the above, I would have to say that it depends on your take on Transport League. Last time out, their album was a middle of the pack score, neither excelling nor massively failing, it was just ‘there’. This time, it appears to be a little more notable, but still fairly non-descript.
Kaiserschnitt is loaded with plenty of raw grooves. The gravelly vocals with that bite in them work well with the solid, thick, pounding stabs of distorted guitar chugs and rumbling bass. The solid rhythmic pulse of the music has a good hook to it and the quirky lead melodic flavourings of some of the progressions work well to give something to latch onto. It’s heavy, it’s music which feels like it is alive and wants to break out, and honestly, it does appear to have promise in places but whilst simplicity can be successful, it can also lead to mediocrity. For all the booming, infectious grooves and empowering vocal yells, there are moments where you think the track might explode to life but instead that screaming solo just doesn’t happen. For all the stompin’ grooves which thunder away you expect the massive drum roll into a big break, but it doesn’t quite pan out the way you think. Across all the tracks there are these little moments which in isolation seem irrelevant or easy to brush aside, but when put alongside all the other moments and looked at as a whole, it seems like there could be so much more happening. A prime example of this is “Sound”. It balances the groove and the melodic work excellently but the brief lead flashes in the transition sections just don’t pan out the way you would want them too. What could be the prime spot for a screaming fast blues inspired solo segment just falls into more chugging riffs. It is these missed moments which hold Transport League back from making a massive statement with their studio work, giving rise to the idea that these tracks are definitely suited to the live experience and not the home experience.
In all, ‘Kaiserschnitt’ is a respectable effort. It has so much potential which could have been capitalised on, but it isn’t just something which has been ‘dialled in’ for the sake of getting a release out. It’s an album which feels more like it is there for the live experience so it can take on a life of its own rather than to be listened to casually at home.
(6/10 Fraggle)
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