Two years after “150 – Where The Old Gods Play Part One”, the six-piece from Gothenburg serves us the second part of the film script written by bassist Patrik Andersson Winberg. Right from the opening riff of ‘The Crucifixion’, the warmly familiar tube-driven sound of the three guitars is a pleasant delight to the ears. If moose could play string instruments, this is probably how they’d sound. Organic, earthy, cozily warm. Simply wonderful. Anyone who loved THE ORDER OF ISRAFEL for this very reason will be instantly back on board. But the initiated already know this, of course.
Let’s stick with that “yesterday’s snow” and once again highlight the unique voice of Tomas Eriksson, whose throaty vocals bring a certain static charge to my tent. The gurgling sounds he produces while singing are so wonderfully eerie that I’m completely captivated every single time. Combined with this swampy musical world, which fuses deep, organ-like tones with Mick Box-style memory riffs so brilliantly, it creates a special kind of musical realm I’m happy to dive into deeply. In fact, I increasingly notice references to early URIAH HEEP masterpieces in the songs. The band places great importance on atmosphere and takes the listener on a journey into the Florida swamps, where they perform a few ritualistic songs while dancing with alligators in flames—mud in the mouth included.
Even mystical-Celtic elements only serve to deepen the spiritual effect. This happens in the surprisingly brisk ‘Dark Clouds Are Rising’, a track that not only doomheads will celebrate. Here, the band plays with powerful steam in the boilers and proves that they can still deliver enough originality even at faster tempos. A year-end list contender! But the following track ‘My Father’ is also a triumph from start to finish. A hookline to kneel for and a top-class gurgle attack! That’s how you create earworms!
If I had to complain about anything, it would be the length of the album. At just 39 minutes, it’s simply too short, because after each listen I find myself automatically starting it again. Will it get boring over time? Absolutely not, because the fine folks of DUN RINGILL know how to make even a nearly ten-minute-long song feel short and engaging. Just listen to ‘Lucia’s Monologue Part 1 & 2’, a track with mystical spoken passages from an enchanting female voice, while the hoarsely incanting chants of the high priests in the background cloud the remaining senses. Did I already mention rituals?
And when, to close, the Pied Piper of Hamelin plays along to that bewitching female voice, the replay button becomes a matter of instinct. A bomb of an album!