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FLIGHT
Echoes Of Journeys Past

Dying Victims Productions (2023)
Rating: 9/10

It’s been five long years since Oslo, Norway-based Flight released their second full-length outing, but now they are back with another joyously fluid extravaganza. Even if you’ve never experienced Flight before then it’s time you did because here is a band that offers everything and yet with such a casual air.

Echoes Of Journeys Past boasts more effortless accounts of mystical funkiness, low-key prog rock, nifty technicality and, above all, a vintage flair, which is exhibited from the off with the staggering ‘Hypatia’. The opening track is dripping with driving rhythms and cool, meandering waves that happily nod towards a myriad of bands ranging from Satan to Rush and from Blue Öyster Cult to Winterhawk as vocalist Christoffer Bråthen leads his band through the fjords, armed with a batch of anthems that one moment could appear on some obscure proto-metal album, the next drifting like some grey cloud of imminent doom and then angelically and cosmically spiralling like some sky serpent.

Yes, this sort of 70s worship is currently all the rage but there has always been something special with Flight as they coolly stride onwards with the esoteric fizz of ‘Valley Of The Moon’, the gentle sway of ‘Comet Of Gold’ and the light galloping doom of the title track. Mixing so many influences to create their own plateau of spiritual energy is a wonder to behold as ‘Path To Nowhere (Elysian Fields)’ rumbles like Black Sabbath and Heavy Load before providing a Thin Lizzy-esque soulful strut.

This is the epitome of cool if you will as the brief trickle of ‘Moondance’ melts into the sublime closer ‘Mystic Mountain’, built upon the driving percussion of Herman Holen and engaging rattles of bass man Jonas Bye. Dashes of Fleetwood Mac, sprigs of Wishbone Ash, hints of Hällas and, dare I say it, even Dire Straits and delivered with such lackadaisical lavishness as the bands mentioned.

Breathtaking throughout, Echoes Of Journeys Past is that cocktail of all things that have passed, and wrapped in a smooth blanket of sincerity which although lacking punch manages to provide enough nostalgia and happiness, even with such undercurrents of moodiness. This is a stellar hard rock album for all.

Neil Arnold

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