ALBUM REVIEW: The Approbation – AVKRVST
Hailing from Norway, AVKRVST is the result of two childhood friends finally making good on a decades-long promise to create music together. Crafted over several months of secluded weekends in a summer cabin, AVKRVST’s debut release The Approbation is an ode to progressive music in all its forms. And as the first joint creative expression of Martin Utby and Simon Bergset, it’s clear that years of friendship have helped ensure the AVKRVST’s first step is incredibly cohesive. The Approbation is an autumnal collection of considered music that runs the gamut from mournful to serene in the way that acts like OPETH and PORCUPINE TREE did so adeptly at the turn of the millennium.
Of course, it doesn’t take long to realise that AVKRVST do wear those influences on their sleeves. Opening track proper, The Pale Moon, heavily references both OPETH and PORCUPINE TREE in its approach. Delicately clean guitars drift ominously before being interrupted by aggressive, metallic stabs; swooning guitar leads reappear to provide occasional breaks in the weather; and then the track unsuspectingly builds, replacing its haunting clean vocals with deathened growls. All of these stylistic vignettes have more than a whiff of classic Mikael Åkerfeldt to them – particularly once the thick, throaty extreme vocals roll in. But they’re even more lavishly textured, thanks to lush instrumentation and synthesised layers that seem to pull a little more from Steven Wilson. While it’s easy to identify The Pale Moon’s lineage, it stands as a tantalising opener and is a flag in the ground for what to expect across The Approbation.
Isolation nods more towards classic prog rock waters, rumbling between stomping riffs and spiralling Hammonds, before eventually stripping everything back to atmospherics. The whole song is structured like a change of seasons. Beautiful guitar harmonies transform into unsettling minor chords that float uneasily, like leaves browning and falling from a tree. The song’s seasonal shift provides the perfect backdrop to some hypnotic, lullaby vocals from Bergseth. That sense of a change in the weather is one that crops up throughout The Approbation, with Arcane Clouds seeing a storm brew. The track saunters between the gloomy and the dramatic, and from discordant to mellow in a flash. Its crescendo chorus feels like a gathering of clouds and is reminiscent of the more wistful days of ANATHEMA.
However, it’s The Great White River where The Approbation really hits its peak. Beginning with anxiously crunchy chords, the song shifts pace to become a beautifully contemplative mix of mellow muted guitar arpeggios and dreamy synths. The acoustic guitars are accompanied by sparkling piano lines for its chorus, providing a bit of pop-tinged melancholy before the sinister distortion kicks back in – this time bolstered by guttural screams. The Great White River sees AVKRVST really firing on all cylinders and is the moment where the band establish their own identity the most on The Approbation.
Closing the album is a hugely ambitious duo of lengthy, ten-minute-plus numbers in Anodyne and the title track. The couplet provides a final centrepiece for a record that already teems with twists and turns. Anodyne is a schooling in prog metal through and through. Starting as a chaotic instrumental, its second half switches gear into a lilting acoustic number as if it were nothing. The music stays serene while picking up more steam before naturally segueing in to The Approbation. The title track continues its predecessor’s mellow vibes before dirgy, dirty riffs and odd time signatures kick in. The song fluctuates dramatically in its running time, AVKRVST deciding that the best way to find equilibrium between the heavy and the light is by diving head-first into the extremes of both. It’s an impressive feat that the track remains as coherent as it is, continuing to show Bergseth and Utby’s deft grasp on compositional flow.
Considering its position as a debut album, The Approbation sounds like the work of a seasoned band who have been honing their proggy craft for years. Normally, the friendship of founding band members wouldn’t factor into analysing a record, but it’s clear the shared history between Bergseth and Utby has translated into a shared musical vision. While AVKRVST lean on some of their influences at points throughout, they’re able to put their own twist on the long-established tropes of the genre. When AVKRVST step out slightly further on their own feet though, that’s when The Approbation is something really special.
Rating: 8/10
The Approbation is set for release on June 16th via InsideOut Music.
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