It would be difficult to imagine a more appropriate title for album number five from Icelandic trio The Vintage Caravan; Monuments is immense, primal heavy rock, with the influence of Black Sabbath, Cream, Led Zeppelin and sundry proto-metal bands running deep within its groovy veins.
Much like their earlier albums, really, except that this time round there seems to be an even greater focus on strong melodies and songcraft.
Full-flight opener Whispers reels around an instantly memorable riff and chorus; Dark Times blazes like a psychedelic Iron Maiden; Torn In Two seems, basically, to be a wonderful excuse for a ferocious guitar solo.
- “Plenty have paddled in the same murky waters, but few have done it with such eye-popping vigour”: Seven Impale’s City Of The Sun: 10th anniversary edition
- Twiddly Iron Maiden harmonies, thrash riffs, horror, rapping (kind of) and sexy goth allure: The Screaming Of The Valkyries is peak Cradle Of Filth
At eight minutes-plus each, the two cosmic yin and yang standouts, though, must be middle track Forgotten and closer Clarity, the former fast and thrashy with bags of old-school attack, the latter lysergically mellow and dreamy, with a lengthy instrumental ending.
The Vintage Caravan just get better and better.
