Jono Moulds checks out the new album from The Riven for The Rock & Roll Circus. "Peace and Conflict" is due out on 9th December, through, The Sign Records.
Classic rock meets heavy metal on” Peace and Conflict”; the second studio album by Swedish five piece The Riven. Since the release of their debut, self-titled album from 2019, the group has recruited a second guitarist, enabling more dynamic twin guitar arrangements and colourful melodic elements enriching the new tracks. This combined with a powerful vocal performance and a tightly pounding rhythm section results in a full-blown rock explosion divided into 9 new tracks.
With a growing number of gigs, tours, and festival appearances on their resume, ‘Peace and Conflict’ shows an ever evolving The Riven, still with a sound firmly rooted in NWOBHM- powered hard rock. Lyrically tackling subjects such as life, death, freedom, love, and hate while moving between fast paced heavy metal numbers to laid back acoustic cuts,” Peace and Conflict” offers a varied and vibrant rock experience.
The Riven are due to release their second full length studio album “Peace and Conflict” on the 9th December 2022. The album will be available on Vinyl, CD and digital platforms. New on this album, is the guitarist Joakim Sandegård who together with Arnau Diaz create a twin guitar sound, new to The Riven. Also in this album is Jussi Kalla behind the drums who made his debut with the band with "windbreaker/movin on" released, on May 2020 Ekebergh vocals – Ternebring on bass
Review by Jono Moulds.
And without a moment’s hesitation, and bizarrely enough, the album opens with the tune ‘On-Time’, which is already providing evidence of a strong leaning toward guitar driven Rock ‘n Roll, with its up-tempo riffage hitting you straight in the mush. As with most of the reviews I carry out, having never heard many of the bands/artists I check-out, I’m always intrigued with the singer’s vocal prowess. That being the case, ‘Ekebergh’ arrives to the party with a low register vocal, that has a hint of growl, as and when it’s needed (think Blondie, but with a harder edge in the delivery). The chorus is brief, but catchy and has that classic ascending chord progression pattern, that you can’t really go wrong with. The songs well utilised riff is also the songs go to lick, but there are some well-played twin guitar parts throughout that adds a different vibe. As the guitars head for the track’s spotlight, the solo is set-up with a repeated guitar riff that leads into a screamer!! – that was very cool. A solid, fast paced opener.
Up next ‘The Taker’, that begins with a strong crash into a minor chord, which then develops with a guitar line being played that leads us into an almost early ‘Maiden’ sounding ambiance (Running Free anyone?). As with the opener, the song certainly has a speedy tempo to it, which given my comments before, makes sense. The transition from verse to chorus is seamless, to the point where unless you heard the title being sung within the lyrics, you’d be hard pushed to pick it out, still, that ‘’galloping’ feel to the tune will keep your ‘toes a tapping’. The song certainly has that NWOBHM flavour about it, both in terms of the playing, writing and production, in fact, it’s taken me so far back that I’m thinking of going out to buy a copy of KERRANG!! The first guitar solo enhances this feeling too, as the playing and construction comes straight out of the ‘79/early ‘80’s metal songbook – still, it’s a trip down memory lane and I’m loving that. After ‘Ekebergh’ gives the track a crowd participation series of ‘Woah’s’, there’s a second guitar solo that equals the first, and then some, which ‘metallically’ takes us to the tunes end.
Up next is the albums title track ‘Peace and Conflict’ and with such a juxtaposition, it’ll be interesting to see if the music follows the title. To start with, a throbbing bass line is supported by a low humming synth, that brings out clean guitar chords, that have just enough delay and reverb added to sound very ‘Floydesque’. This comparison is quickly dispelled (of sorts) as the band crank things up. However, the opening verse brings things back to a serene and calm state, without losing the pace and of the tune, as that bass throb is the constant, metronomic anchor. Already, the sense and feel are 180 degrees away from what we’ve heard so far but is a welcome change to proceedings. There are pockets of hard-hitting power scattered within this well written piece, so it’s not all on the low-down, as overdriven guitars make their mark as and when required to lift the song. The ‘pulsating’ bass line is the catalyst (once again) for a superbly constructed guitar section (the first of two distinct guitar parts), that pays more than a passing homage to ‘Floyd’s ‘One of These Days’ in its arrangement. The second guitar piece has a more familiar feel to it, as the tempo increases and we move from that ‘Floyd’ feel, and back to that metal construct – superb. Before I go too much further, a shout out to the drumming on this track, it moves both technically and effortlessly within every nuance and change that the song throws up and is a stand-out performance. Not sure we will find another song on this album that has been written outside the walls of metal, but nevertheless, if we don’t, this song is more than worthy of being the title track.
‘La Puerta del Tiempo’ that translates to ‘The Gate of Time’ and is a surprising, short lived Spanish acoustic piece that is over before you know it and leads us frenetically into ‘Sorceress of the Sky’, with its drum intro that ensures that we have landed back on more of a metal footing, or am I being a little too hasty, as that promising, hard rocking start is quickly removed and hidden away (for the time being, at least) leaving the opening verse bare, with only a sprinkling of guitar hints, and a solid rhythm section to hold the fort. But this is just the set-up, as the band unleash that distinctive power once more during the chorus, that includes some outstanding support vocal work from ‘Ekebergh’, which I love. In fact, I’d say that this is my favourite vocal performance so far – quite outstanding, so many examples of high-quality singing. A very delicate and emotional tune is completed by the return of that Spanish acoustic – excellent
‘On Top of Evil’ begins with some clean, chorus filled guitar and, in many ways, mirrors the title of the song, that being ‘sullen and darkly atmospheric’. The intro ‘repeats and stretches’ into the tune by a distance, but it isn’t too long before ‘Ekebergh’ deeply and evocatively opens with the line ‘I’m on top of evil’. Early doors, and this has an early ‘Sabbath’ eeriness about it, and you can well imagine ‘Double ‘O’ delivering this with menace. Moving on, the song starts to unwind and develop with a dark force, as those early swathes of clean guitar are overtaken on the cue of a series of snare drum strikes that signal a far grittier and power-based release, but this is short lived as we head back in for another batch, but this time, enhanced verses. A change of pace welcomes in the guitar solo piece, which once again, encapsulates an ‘old school’ metal feel. The song completes itself with additional verses, that is formed over this quicker paced portion of the tune. No doubt that the track does exactly as the title suggests – dark and seriously weighty.
And it’s back to some good old-fashioned guitar riffage, as ‘Fly Free’ kicks off quickly in a familiar and somewhat bygone style. Through the high-level pace of a tune, ‘Ekebergh’ announces - ‘Running free, riding forever’ as verses are sung over the tracks opening guitar riff. It doesn’t take long to determine that this is a no nonsense, definitive sounding rocker, which is more than proved correct within the very appealing chorus of the song – ‘Fly Free – Fly through the mountains – Fly through the night’ – great stuff. There is a lovely augmented, and again, ‘Maiden’ inspired twin-guitar piece mid-way through the tune, which is beautifully played and sets-up the re-introduction of the chorus. No re-inventing the wheel here, but who needs re-invention when sometimes all you need to do is ROCK!!
And in the words of the great ‘Monty Python’ – ‘and now for something completely different’, as we meet a complete change of pace as we head toward ‘Sundown’. This acoustic led song starts off about as far removed from the last as you could get, with its pastoral overtones, as ‘Ekerbergh’ softly joins in to accompany the sweet and clear sound of the guitar. There is almost a ‘Zeppelin’, ‘folky’ air to certain areas of the track, certainly through some of picked guitar parts. Something different indeed, which proves that band are more than a ‘one-trick pony’ and can produce tunes that fall on various sides of the Rock spectrum.
And to the final song on the album, and with a title ‘Death’, the final song is the right place to track list this. At over 6 minutes long, I’m expecting this to be grand and foreboding, and it certainly starts off that way, with menacing overdriven guitars making their mark from the start, only for the stride to drop as the band decide to ‘keep with the theme’ and make the verse sections mood laden, playing up to the songs title. Verses are interspersed with the heavier, guitar-based start, which has the effect of one counteracting the other, by building up the tune, only for it to be stripped back for optimum effect. That said, halfway through, and the song is further ‘stripped’ to the point where just a ‘throbbing’ bass line is left, as ‘Ekerbergh’ uses a mix of the spoken word and some melody to produce a hybrid vocal (think Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Maiden – mid-section). As we drift along, there is some ‘deftly’ played guitar lines/licks added for ‘increased flavour’, which is certainly not out of place, and indeed, as ‘Ekerbergh’ pulls away from the spotlight, the guitar takes over completely, and ticks the ‘grand’ statement that I used at the beginning of the songs review. By the time one and all are back in the fold, the songs crescendo is well underway, as vocals cry and guitars and drums are let loose. Quite a way to finish of the album.
Let’s see then, I figured (after the first few songs at least) that I’d tagged this album. All the songs would be fast, heavy and produced/written in a style that ‘tapped’ into old school classic rock. Well, I got that wrong – big time. Yes, there is plenty of evidence on this album of good, old fashioned classic rock, but there is also enough evidence on show that they are much more than one dimensional, as they effortlessly move out of this Hard Rocking Zone and explore other musical options to maximum effect. This is far more of an eclectic piece of work than I’d considered it would end up being, and to that end, I give the band enormous credit. If you wanna rock, if you want a trip down memory lane and if you want something you’d bargain on, then check this out – you won’t be disappointed.
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Ceri Davies
Presenter and Co-Director
