ALBUM REVIEW: Portals – The Vintage Caravan

THE VINTAGE CARAVAN is fortunately nothing like its namesake. In reality, a vintage caravan would be unreliable, covered in rust, and generally provide an unwanted reminder of the past we’d gladly left behind. The Icelandic trio, however, have offered polished and consistent ventures in classic psych rock since the 2010s and, despite employing an abundance of 60s and 70s stylings, their knack for nostalgic noodling has often been forward-looking. Reining in the genre’s tendency to jam aimlessly into a kaleidoscopic car crash, TVC favours bangers to boredom, without compromise in character or out-and-out skill. Portals represents album number six, a 17-track behemoth that sees the band fulfil its namesake’s purpose of taking people on a ‘journey’. Is it a road trip to remember, or is this weary convoy destined to crumble under its own weight?

Before we answer any of the above, some context. TVC’s retro-fueled rock practically exploded into relevancy. Traction was slow and steady following their 2011 self-titled debut, with mainstream crowds unwilling to bite until 2018’s Reflections – a breakthrough that won the hearts of the masses with a near spotless tracklist and a realignment in songwriting that produced brisker and bolder results. From here on in TVC’s trajectory was set. In 2025, the band confidently boasts five shining full-length projects, memories sharing stages with genre titans OPETH, and mainstay status on festival bills from Wacken Open Air to Hellfest. 

Portals, thankfully, is another trophy to be added to the cabinet of such successes. Simply put, this is TVC at their most ambitious, most emotionally profound, and most dexterous in fine-tuning the balance of writing bangers and those with a bit more substance. This is an impressive feat for a band that has largely ridden the coattails of their own consistency. While, yes, Reflections may have tightened up the band’s writing, and 2021’s Monuments gave more thumping production, even die-hard fans will concede TVC prefers to play safe rather than reach beyond their grasp. Portals by no means reinvents the wheel, but its sheer size and diversity keep the wheels moving in the right direction in what easily could have been an utter chore to wade through. The 17-strong tracklist is carefully divided through five Portal interludes, graciously transporting listeners from rampant rock anthems to lucid landscapes of psychedelia. They don’t always find their place as smoothly as the band would hope, with Portal IV resulting in temporary whiplash from its knee-jerk transition into Freedom, but otherwise provides welcome novelty in the familier field of psychedelia.

Minor gripes aside, the album is replete with some of the best psychedelic rock that you can treat your ears to. Our starting point is Philosopher, a romper of a track led by OPETH’s Mikael Åkerfeldt, beaming atop crunchy riffs and swaying grooves, fitting into the TVC’s almost by design. From here, the trio ventures on a serpentine curve through the emotional spectrum. We’re front-loaded with exhilaration and throat-tearing hooks in Days Go By and Here You Come Again, sinking into the contemplative, mournful tones of Current and Crossroads, rising to calls of revolution in Freedom and Riot, before settling into My Aurora’s dulcet whispers; a false sense of security ahead of This Road’s final moments of high-octane mania. If it sounds a little all over the place, that’s because it is. Portals stays true to its name, warping about at random without a central thread to keep itself anchored, musically or sentimentally. However, given this is easily the band’s most holistic take on the genre since 2014’s Voyage, it would seem unfair to make this a mark against their name, particularly when the band sounds just as ferocious as they did almost 15 years ago.

While largely a sprawling patchwork, Portals never buckles under its own weight because TVC wear the chaos with intent. This isn’t the sound of a band losing the thread, it’s the sound of one pulling at every possible thread to see where it leads, trusting the journey more than the destination. If Reflections was their defining statement of polish, then Portals is their statement of scope: ambitious, messy, luminous, and above all, alive. For a band more than a decade into their run, it’s proof they’re still not content with coasting, and that the ride ahead, much like the name they’ve staked themselves on, remains endlessly worth taking.

Rating: 8/10

Portals is set for release September 26th via Napalm Records.

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