Some eighteen months ago, should you care to peruse prior reviews on Ave Noctum, I was waxing lyrical on the undoubted virtues of Icelandic three piece Volcanova and their first album ‘Radical Waves’. Ah, eighteen months ago, the heady days of mid-2020 and a first lockdown when like a Blackadder going forth we all talked about it “being over by Christmas”. Well, sadly the global pandemic is still fighting a tenacious rearguard action, and just after receiving this EP for review, I received the news that The Vintage Caravan’s tour which had Volcanova as EU support (hell, it still seems weird to separate UK and EU) has been postponed to a date unknown. With so much doom and gloom around, surely that darkness has pervaded the music of ‘Cosmic Bullshit’?
Well, I’m bloody glad to report that the band’s spirit and joie de vivre remains undiminished. Unlike their assorted unpronounceable corpse paint sporting black metal screaming countrymen, Volcanova are happy to drape themselves in Hawaiian shirts, Bermuda shorts and just have a bloody good time. ‘Salem’ unashamedly stamps from the speakers with a flurry of riffs and hooks that demand the listener hit the bar, buy a round, and get the party started. ‘Gold Coast’ keeps the good times flowing with a happy slab of groove laden merry making, with more cowbell than a Blue Oyster Cult comedy sketch. Clearly though, not all can be fun, and the band follow with the aptly titled ‘Desolation’; who am I trying to kid? Raising a stiff middle finger to nominative determinism this is another stormer that would have the most stoically planted toes tapping, and if it doesn’t make you want to dance, well, there may be little hope for you.
‘End of Time’ does slow down the party in favour of a more gentle acoustic opening, the sound building into a mellow trippy electric refrain, the band moving from straight hard rock into a more stoner based sound, channelling the lighter tones of Sleep through the track, before they fire up the pace with ‘No Wheels’ that roars like an oversized American motorbike flying across an empty desert road. The all too brief foray into the realm of ‘Cosmic Bullshit’ comes to an end care of ‘Lost Spot’, a hard rock stonker that surely deserves a place as their live set closer when the road re-opens for the band.
There is more than enough misery to go around, be it in personal experience or artistic endeavour, and the unadulterated slice of devil may care entertainment that is ‘Cosmic Bullshit’ is a much needed tonic. I’ve still only seen Volcanova live once, but damn but if I don’t emphatically remember their energy and enthusiasm, and I absolutely want to hear them play some tracks from this EP. Until then folks, let me recommend you splash some cash on this Icelandic trio, and keep checking the internet for your chance to see them on stage.
(8.5/10 Spenny)
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