"Ever surprising, ever seemingly in turmoil, Uppsala’s Reveal! have built a shockingly defiant canon of musick over the past decade under this moniker. Keenly note musick: while undoubtedly rooted in metal, these four mavericks have been predictably unpredictable in just how far they’ll push their sound. Their π΅πππππππ ππ π¬πππ πππ π»ππππ full-length debut in 2011 might’ve been bent and broken as far as extreme metal goes, but the follow-up πππππππππ in 2016 began setting Reveal! away from the pack. And like true lone wolves, three years later did πΊπππππππππ finally separate the wheat from chaff. A modern classic that confused and cajoled in equal measure, πΊπππππππππ set forth a spectrum of sounds which had no precedent. Thirsty and miserable but with beautiful bloodshot eyes, the Reveal! of πΊπππππππππ sonically/spiritually nodded to noise-rock of yesteryear – be it The Birthday Party and other ‘80s Australian contemporaries on to the “pigfuck” movement of Big Black, Scratch Acid, Killdozer, and early Pussy Galore – but filtered it through a brittle lens of ancient death metal and first-wave black metal…and yet, it sounded nothing like that at all. LUNATIC ROCK? Maybe. And predictably, Reveal! return with another unpredictable record which asks yet more questions and gives no easy answers: π«πππππππππ. Indeed, π«πππππππππ is NOT “easy” – in fact, it’s arguably more challenging than πΊπππππππππ – but through some strange sort of magick known only to them, Reveal! here have become more…cinematic? Epic? More “listenably unlistenable”? Truly. But, only half the truth, because the band’s truth could be lies, and lies always entice… π«πππππππππ is lunatic, and it rocks. It IS epic, and it IS cinematic. It’s also more melodic, more wounded, more wasted, more desperate, and also more accomplished and “cleaner” – only VERY relatively speaking, for this is grade-A DIRT we’re still talking about – and more professional/“professional” and even kinda more heavy metal…in the wildest, weirdest way possible. Or, it all just sounds like Reveal! No other outfit dances as dangerously on the thin line between genius and madness as these insane Swedes, and π«πππππππππ is poignant proof."
...Oh, indeed the line gets thinner every album they release, right...
Our eyes intinctively pause on the words LUNATIC - CINEMATIC - EPIC. Curious combination. And this description is indeed teasing us to the point of torture right now, especially thinking back of what Spine and Crakk of RVL! told us in our recent interview about the new album: the words "It's a fucking new masterpiece album" and "the best thing you're going to hear in probably the rest of your life", just to mention a couple of clues they gave us about "Doppelherz", are now buzzing in our minds like a giant fly that just gets bigger every time you look at it...and so does our anticipation for "Doppelherz", indeed.
Then, considering that Crakk mentioned how the cover artwork could accurately represents the new album to someone who has no clue of how it sounds, taking a look at it now... adds to what he said a whole new level of meaning...
(Can't rule out that is going to be also our face when we finally listen to "Doppelherz" and swallow it all like a massive psychoactive musical pill. )
So, what else do we know so far about this new creature that is about to roam freely in a few months?
Well, we have heard thus far one song taken from the album: the single "Some Marionettes, Some Kites (A Few Knives)" has been out since July, and we know that according to Spine, the song has been chosen as first single, aside from the brilliant title, because out of all the rest it is "most normal thing" that's going on there. (Putting the 7" on...spinning it again...alright, the most normal thing. Good, very good. The rest might just be pure insanity at this point, excellent.)
We also know that Affe of Obnoxious Youth co-produced it, and he told us that "adding Viktor from Dictator Ship on drums took things to a whole new level" and defined the new album as "an absolute masterpiece".
And all three of them have confirmed that we can expect "Doppelherz" to be, production-wise, the "cleanest" sounding Reveal! album to date, particularly because of many details they added which they didn't want to get lost in the recording. So, they "felt it was necessary to do a clean record", however they also told us that they love gritty recordings. So, clean, but still a Reveal! kind of clean.
The recording of Reveal!'s fourth full-length took place at The Dustward Studio, with Stefan BrΓ€ndstrΓΆm, who "knew that studio very well and totally got what we wanted to do. Which I think it's not that common, so I think you should be happy,if someone gets it", told us Crakk. "I think he got inspired, and we got inspired by that, so a spiral upwards", said Spine.
Another fact about "Doppelherz" that we are aware of is that this time, all the music has been written by Spine alone: "the recent album is like Lukas' solitary", told us Crakk; and Spine added "this time I spent lonely time in my house and just wrote all the stuff".
Sepulchral Voice Records has announced that there will soon be a song premiere and further info.
Putting together clues and bits of details here and there is certainly making it sound as we are going to meet another captivating, surprising and eccentric creature spawned from Reveal!'s creativity and uniqueness.
And now that all this foreplay got our ears properly juicy and thirsty, we couldn't be more eager to hear it. Ready when you are, "Doppelherz".
Meanwhile you can make sure to read our full interview with Spine and Crakk of Reveal! HERE
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