With the recent rise in popularity of late 60’s/early 70’s retro doom/occult rock or whatever you want to call it we have Sweden’s Nocturnal throwing down the gauntlet and throwing a few cats among pigeons. To me this gem of a find was really rewarding right from the first spin. Tracks like ‘Evil Times’ and even ‘Feels like a Lie’ has me thinking of Cream and much of the late 60’s music that came out of the UK and elsewhere. Some of the guitar tones even have me thinking of Hendrix, as the atmosphere and dreamy nature of the music has the same sort of qualities. When you listen to the first track ‘Insecure’, you should be totally hooked by its end and this is really swayed by the majestic vocal talent on offer. The band does seem to be rather elusive, there is not a massive amount of actual info available, but with music as timeless as this, you quickly get over that fact.
The songs sound fresh and invigorating, they stir your senses and if you have great sunshine to accompany the listening experience, this is a perfect combination. The songs were not over produced in the studio, they were written pretty damn sharply prior to recording the material and hence you gain a genuine cool lazy feeling from the tunes. All in all, this album does play out with an effortless ease, had these gents been around in the late 60’s you may even have talked about them with the same reverence as those classic artists I have mentioned earlier. They are even not afraid to use some acoustic guitar pieces, like the ending to ‘One of a Kind’ which further boosted the soul of this music.
This is an obvious inclusion to your collection if you are a fan of Free Fall, Graveyard, Snakeskin Angels and Ghost, but I reckon Nocturnal tip the scales compared to those bands. “Nocturnal” is a really refreshing album that’s takes you back to the sounds that created all the current crop of music we all listen to and it is a classic piece of retro psychedelic rock.
(8/10 Paul Maddison)
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