Emerging from the icy mists of Norway, KAL-EL take off with "Astral Voyager Vol. 1" - a heavy-laden space-rock odyssey packed with fuzz, doom, and galactic groove. Across six expansive tracks, these stoner cosmonauts navigate asteroid fields of desert-dry riffs, steered by "The Captain", their vocal commander, whose Ozzy-esque tone drifts like a high priest through a nebula of psychedelia. His voice feels caught somewhere between an alien galaxy and a lunar mining outpost—clear in delivery, yet otherworldly in spirit.
The journey launches with the colossal title track—a nine-and-a-half-minute voyage through time and space. It builds slowly, as weighty as an asteroid shower, with downtuned guitars spiraling outward into the void. The chorus? A hymn for the intergalactic rest stop. This isn’t just a song—it’s a stargate; a fuzz-cushioned spacecraft with a wormhole core. A must-listen, without question.
'B.T.D.S.C.' kicks things up a notch: gritty guitars whip across the cosmic plane, while pounding drums propel the ship through starlit turbulence—a riffstorm with a hook that lodges itself deep in your brain. If you're not nodding along, you’re already lost in space. 'Void Cleaner' drips with sludge from Saturn’s orbit—dense, heavy, and humming with menace. The vocals flirt dangerously close to the Sabbath sun, but instead of burning out, they carve deep craters into the listener’s mind. Rhythms stomp like Martian drill rigs, and the solos cut through the atmosphere with laser precision.
Things turn more ethereal with 'Cloud Walker', which floats like a psychedelic haze over a dead moon—shimmering guitars, fluid harmonies, bordering on post-rock dreamscapes. But peace is short-lived: with 'Dilithium' and the epic closer 'Cosmic Sailor', KAL-EL ignite the final stage of their fuzz rocket. The tension builds slowly, crashing down like a meteor storm, erecting sonic walls that make the space between stars tremble.
Astral Voyager Vol. 1 is a cosmic trip, an interstellar fuzz cruiser blending doom, psychedelic rock, and proto-metal vibes into a swirling nebula of noise and nostalgia. KAL-EL deliver the sonic equivalent of a journey through a black hole, beautiful and intoxicating.
-Helge Neumann
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