ALBUM REVIEW: The Head & The Habit – Greenleaf
Originally starting as a side project in 1999 and hailing from the small town of Borlänge in the depths of Sweden’s Dalarna Country, GREENLEAF have since become a force in the stoner scene. The band only became serious in 2013 – after a decade of being a loose collective project – when guitarist Tommi Holappa (DOZER) reached out to classically trained and charismatic vocalist Arvid Hällagård (GIANT SPACE CRUISER) to sing on a new track. Alongside drummer Sebastian Olsson, the band played a few shows and realised that the new vocal direction and infectious onstage chemistry demonstrated that GREENLEAF had some mileage and could become bigger than a stop-gap project for downtime from the member’s other bands.
With nine albums under their belt already, the band return with their latest offering – and fourth album with Hällagård – The Head & The Habit. Ten years since the release of their landmark album Times & Passes, GREENLEAF provide an album that is energised by their past successes but steeped in the maturity of a band that is well-versed in rocking harder and stronger than anyone else. With that in mind, on first impression, The Head & The Habit is a vibrant, energetic and uplifting album that shows GREENLEAF are back to their very best.
If there is one thing that Sweden is brilliant at exporting, it’s rock and metal bands – GREENLEAF are no exception. Steeped in 1970s rock and proto-metal influences, the Borlänge quartet know how to craft a song that harks back to those hazy days, evoking the thunderous spirits of BLACK SABBATH, LED ZEPPELIN and RAINBOW and supercharging them with the raw power of Swedish grit and modern, bass-heavy production. Compared to the band’s last album Echoes From A Mass (2021), The Head & The Habit moves away from the all-consuming fuzz-laden grooves of its predecessor in favour of something more intricately melodic and progressive. It still contains GREENLEAF’s signature riff monoliths but they aren’t the main focus of this album.
As a result, the melodies have a lot of space to breathe as they weave in and out of each other like the fragments of glitter in a kaleidoscope. There’s a trippier aspect to this album as well; throughout the album you are presented with calm, bluesy, psychedelic sections that transport you to another world, as is best demonstrated on the penultimate track The Tricking Tree. However, while you blissfully drive away, the band build momentum and launch you straight back into the fray with anthemic chords and wild guitar melodies.
The Head & The Habit’s overall sound is more diverse. From the action-packed, almost jazz-influenced shuffle rhythms as heard on opening track Breathe, Breathe Out to the surrealist lyrics – “Your head is an onion / You’re peeling me fine” – it feels like the band have gone on a journey into the higher consciousnesses of their minds and come back to Earth with a plethora of musical ideas. In some ways the band have reinvented themselves in the three years between albums but it is evident that they have reflected on their past successes and worked out how to reach their very best again.
Opening with the energetic and uplifting Breathe, Breathe Out, the album gets off to a flying start. Packed full of grooves and catchy melodic hooks, GREENLEAF are on a mission to get as much of this album stuck in your head as humanly possible. Avalanche follows at a blistering pace, with dynamic ascending and descending melodies culminating in a pummelling stoner rock breakdown of rumbling riffs that make you want to headbang into next week. Different Horses follows a similar formula to Breathe, Breathe Out in the fact that it is infectiously catchy with well-crafted hooks and melodies backed up by bolshy riffing. A Wolf In My Mind is a bit darker and slower but increasingly trippy as the guitars swirl around with reverb-soaked vocals.
The album is bisected by atmospheric interlude track That Obsidian Grin, in which Holappa and Hällagård join forces for a solemn ballad-esque song. The Siren Sound returns to business with high-energy, uplifting and happy melodies and grooving rhythms that will have your body moving in no time. Oh Dandelion is a lot more bluesy and soulful, and is a standout moment that demonstrates the band’s versatility. The aforementioned The Tricking Tree is an eight-minute dynamic musical odyssey through various musical moods and landscapes. The album is closed by the psychedelic An Alabastrine Smile that fades the album out gradually and lets you soak up all the positive energies that emanate from this record.
GREENLEAF have returned to their very best and The Head & The Habit is a wonderfully energetic and uplifting album. You can’t help but come away from it smiling and knowing you’ve listened to some of the finest high quality stoner rock there is.
Rating: 9/10
The Head & The Habit is set for release on June 21st via Magnetic Eye Records.
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