The Vintage Caravan: Portals

Four years after 2021's Monuments, Iceland's power trio The Vintage Caravan are back with their latest album, Portals, for Napalm Records. It's another thrilling set of bluesy heavy rock inspired by classic bands of the late '60s and early '70s, complete with killer guitar work and excellent vocals. There are five little 'portal' pieces/interludes in between the main songs. The band is:

Stefán Ari Stefánsson: Drums, backing vocals, percussion
�"skar Logi �gustsson: Electric guitars, vocals, acoustic guitars, flute
Alexander Örn Númason: Bass guitars, backing vocals, synthesizers, Farfisa organ

The opening track is "Philosopher". After a brief acoustic opening, the unmistakable voice of Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth appears, dueling with Oskar, and they both complement each other nicely. The song is a groovy, bluesy, heavy rock song, with big fat guitar and bass riffs, a catchy chorus, and a scorching guitar solo from Oskar. Next up is "Days Go By", a big and boisterous retro heavy blues rock...if you've loved their previous albums, you'll feel right at home here. Oskar is a good singer and a terrific guitar player, and they've come up with another memorable chorus here. "Here You Come Again" has a killer groove on this upbeat romp, a sick guitar riff, the bass and drums are rumbling up a storm...yeah, it's a good one! "Current" is more of a darker, slow blues/psych track, and reminds me of a cross between Wishbone Ash and Free. It's a cool, haunting bluesy track, nice vocals and great guitar work. Some smoldering Hammond organ in the background, too. The crankin' jam at the end is awesome. One of my favorite tracks here, and nearly 7 minutes long. "Give and Take" is high-energy heavy blues rock, another kick ass song, and killer riffing and lead guitar from Oskar, drums and bass locked in and groovy. This is followed by "Crossroads", and I love Alexander's bass on this one, which is another haunting psych/bluesy hard rock track. Great guitar licks and textures too. For more of a straightforward rock song, check out "Alone", the chorus is pretty catchy, but overall this one doesn't excite me all that much. However, on "Freedom", there's that Vintage Caravan stomp! Lightning-quick lead guitar fills at the beginning and then the crushing riffs come blasting in powered by crashing drums and big fat bass. There's a memorable chorus, and overall this is just loads of fun and provides for many fist-pumping and headbanging moments. The guitar solo is sick, has a Frank Marino/Jimi Hendrix flair to it. This is how you do bluesy, heavy rock! Up next is "Riot", a frantic, uptempo hard rocker, love how potent the bass is in the mix. "Electrified" has a nice use of spacy synths to offset the groove-laden riffs, emotional vocals from Oskar, and this one has more textures and more atmosphere than some of the others, but still a fun song. Another twist here is "My Aurora", a slow acoustic piece...nice enough, but it has this country blues flavor that's not really my thing. Closing out the album is "This Road", another high-energy driving rocker, which sounds very retro early '70s heavy blues rock, and the guitar solo is wild!

As you can see, I didn't really go into the 'portals' tracks, mainly because most of them are short little instrumental interludes and soundscapes. They don't deter from the album, but they really don't add anything either. I kind of wish the band gave us a proper 'portals' song, or something else, but the rest of the album is mostly pretty killer stuff from a band that keeps giving us high-quality hard rock music. A winner folks!

Track Listing
1. Philosopher (feat. Mikael Ã…kerfeldt) 04:37
2. Portal I 00:35
3. Days Go By 03:57
4. Portal II 00:18
5. Here You Come Again 05:10
6. Current 06:48
7. Give and Take 04:54
8. Portal III 00:19
9. Crossroads 04:56
10. Alone 04:12
11. Portal IV 00:26
12. Freedom 04:17
13. Riot 04:17
14. Electrified 04:29
15. Portal V 00:54
16. My Aurora 03:28
17. This Road 05:46

Added: October 6th 2025
Reviewer: Pete Pardo
Score:
Related Link: Band @ Bandcamp
Hits: 299
Language: english

[ Printer Friendly Page ]
[ Send to a Friend ]