While its predecessor was long-awaited (seven years between their first and second album), this Pilgrims of the Sun only took three years to be conceived and reach our ears. As a reminder, Atomic Vulture is a Belgian instrumental stoner trio. Another surprise with this album: the group embarked on the adventure solo, self-produced, therefore without the support of a label.
The musical style has not evolved too much and it is with pleasure that we dive into these seven compositions: the trio always evolves in a fairly constructed instrumental fuzzed rock riff and in a fairly “open” style. In this respect, the variety is very present on the album, and the different compositions are very diversified: we have well-structured riffs in abundance (“Ad Astra”, “Black Blizzard”), but also several tracks well carried by a lively and exciting rhythm, borrowing largely from kraut rock, like “Alpha Wave”, “Reverse Osmosis” or “Dust Fall”. Unfortunately, some passages are not of the same level of intensity, like some shots of “Subterranean Surfers”, the almost jazzy end of “Reverse Osmosis”, or the slightly labored finale of “Ad Astra” or “Dust Fall”.
In short, if this album contains, like its predecessors, real gems of instrumental stoner rock, some (rare) passages show a small lack of inspiration; the album is not perfect and some compositions could have been a little more refined. But the pleasure is there, in almost every composition, with really nice riffs, exciting solos, and even a few little moments of grace scattered here and there. A good album.
Write a comment