Album Review: Åskväder – Self Titled

When you review an album, the trick is to find the one thing that you can hang your thoughts and impressions on. The first time I played this debut album by Norwegian power trio Åskväder, I had an immediate impression of classic 1970s rock, and all its contemporary derivatives. The second time I played it through, I had a comfortable and favourable impression that this was an album of clever and well-executed poppy blues rock, faithful to the iconic bands of the past. The third time I played it, I began to realise that I had been missing something, that this was something extraordinary. The fourth and fifth times I got it. While unashamedly rooted in comfortably familiar rock forms, this is a startlingly modern album, yet full of references and nods to what has gone before.

There’s a fine line between homage and pastiche that the band do not cross. Åskväder have crafted an album of literally timeless classics that touch and draw upon the classic blues rock moments of the past 40+ years without becoming cliched. They have a brilliant knack for arrangement that’s reminiscent of Rush at their poppiest, while songs like the slower Give In recall Thin Lizzy and Bit My Lip has some bluesy noodling that recalls The Darkness.

Top of the heap, however, is the magnificent Elysium that towers over this album of not insubstantial songs. It leaps and lurches from driving power-pop to bluesy noodling that surprises at every turn.

Overall, the drums thunder, the bass growls, the guitar howls and wails and provides a perfect backdrop for an almost low-key euro-rock vocal that doesn’t have to resort to histrionics to make a point. In fact, it’s almost understated. If you like and love your classic rock, this is definitely an album for you. But you don’t need to be tuned in to what has gone before to enjoy this. It’s a thoroughly modern album with plenty of contemporary drive and lots of musical originality. Recommended.

Åskväder is out now The Sign Records.