ALBUM REVIEW: Earthrise – The Quill
The tenth album from Swedish fret masters THE QUILL is a barnstormer. They’ve already enjoyed a lengthy career and while they’ve never graduated to stoner royalty, they have got very good at writing songs. Earthrise is crammed full of big riffs and huge choruses and makes for a very entertaining listen. It has heavy hitting anthems and blissed out, hallucinogenic epics comfortably sitting next to one another. It’s quite happy representing the accessible end of the stoner spectrum and should appeal to anyone that likes to boogey so hard the ground shakes.
It takes less than a minute to fall in love with Earthrise. Opening with a bellowing vocal line and gradually adding guitars and percussion, it turns into full-on groove worship as they reach the chorus of the first song. Drenched in blues rock and deep rumbling bass lines, it’s a Paisley shirt that’s come to life and tripping its nuts off to a BLACK SABBATH show. And that’s just the introduction.
Keep On Moving and Left Brain Blues for instance are rock at it’s most no-frills fun. They live and die by the guitar work, tasty little licks and chunky power chords inviting you in before Magnus Ekwall’s booming voice convinces you to stay. The title track then starts with a tolling bell, the most metal of all introductory noises, before pushing the throttle to maximum and engaging in some powerhouse axe work. And “is there a planet for diagnosed psychos” might be the best lyric Ozzy Osbourne never wrote.
At the more bleary-eyed end of things though, there are songs like Dwarf Planet. This one feels like it’s deliberately evoking Planet Caravan, only for the easy-going melodies to transform into a thunderous blues explosion. It still moves at a measured pace though, taking a long time to build up to a guitar solo and slowing into a stumbling, disorientated breakdown for the finale. This is probably what an acid trip on the International Space Station is like.
Then there’s Evil Omen, the longest track. Running to nine and a half minutes in length, it’ll probably test the patience of festival audiences, but stoner devotees will lap it up. Heavily indebted to the likes of URIAH HEAP and LED ZEPPELIN, it’s a patient and methodical number where the prog really shines through. It’s also engaging enough that it never comes across like an endurance test.
All of which makes Earthrise a varied and entertaining 21st century rock album. This could soundtrack a daring escape from the Highway Patrol one minute and a celebratory post-chase cigarette in front of a dusty sunset the next. This is an early album of the year contender and if there’s any justice, THE QUILL will be touring with CLUTCH the second lockdown measures lift.
Rating: 9/10
Earthrise is set for release March 26th via Metalville.
Like THE QUILL on Facebook.