By Jonny Bakes
Scandinavia has really become quite the hotbed of hard rocking groovy tunes in recent years with Norway being a prime contributor to that. Just look at Kvelertak who completely blew the lid off with their 2020 release and continue to wow fans with their intensely energetic live shows. So if I were to tell you that I have a new release from a band who have shared the stage with Kvelertak, would that get you all excited? Because it really should! They’re called Shevils, and they’re here to try and blow your mind. I know that, here at ÜRHQ, we keep talking about the light at the end of the tunnel, but perhaps that light is actually the ‘Miracle of the Sun’? There’s only one way to find out…
‘Miracle of the Sun’ is album number four for these Norwegian post-hardcore rockers who generally spend their time relentlessly rehearsing or trucking up and down their native country playing at some of the biggest festivals in Norway, including Trondheim Calling. They are certainly pretty big on their home turf, with Metal Hammer Norway including 2015’s ‘The White Sea’ in their top albums of the year. But I’ll admit that I’d personally not come across them until we picked up a couple of the leading tracks from this album in the Singles Club feature. Perhaps this album will be the one that really cracks the UK market!
Overall, it’s an absolutely crushing display of raw energy that could bring even the lamest party into life! There is absolutely zero let-up in this album and you’ll find that it maintains this fast-paced wall of noise that gut punches you into next week. Vocalist Anders Voldrønning does his utmost to blow out your eardrums with nonstop yelling over the top of a sound that is inherently punky but with more layers of complexity and, more importantly, far less predictable! The result is something incredibly energetic, with a solid groove but a hell of a lot of noise that really does make you want to stand up and shout along.
The album kicks off with ‘Black Ace’ which brings you into the game with a rumbling bass line and heavy riff that leads into an audio onslaught that gives you a pretty good flavour of what the rest of the album is all about. It’s completely balls out and sounds perfect for hitting the road, but definitely not something to listen to when you’re heading towards a speed trap, if you catch my drift!
Perhaps the most fittingly named track on the album has to be ‘Scandinavian Death Star’ which does a pretty good job of summing up what we’ve got here. I’m picking up a very slight nod towards the Offspring in this one with some Dexter Holland-esque “woah-oh” lurking in the background. But, this too, is another example of the raucous sound that defines ‘Miracle of the Sun’. It wastes no time in belting you with heavy grooves and rebel yells to make sure you know what this Scandinavian Death star is all about!
Overall, ‘Miracle of the Sun’ is an album that not only deserves attention but does everything it can to make sure it gets it! It shows that Shevils have got all the skill and energy to excite you, and I can certainly see this being transferable to their live shows. With any luck, this’ll be accompanied by a trip around the Uber Kingdom to give us a taste of what Norway has been lapping up for years! Certainly something here for fans of Kvelertak (obviously) but also anyone who has a bit of a passion for punk music too, hell it’ll even appeal to thrash fans as well. But will this be the album that cracks the UK market? Well, that’ll be down to you to decide.
- ‘Miracle of the Sun’ is released today (7 May). You can get your copy HERE.
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