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KADAVAR
Abra Kadavar

Nuclear Blast (2013)
Rating: 7/10

This German trio are yet another of those revival rock bands doing the rounds, making a career out of aping the creaky, cobweb-ridden 70s rock scene, but this is a band I can put up with.

Thankfully, not as annoying as labelmates Orchid, Kadavar have more diversity to their sound than so many of the Black Sabbath imitators around. Musically, there is a more swingin’ vibe to proceedings – the band not concerned with boring us to death – as they inject a slight folk influence alongside a Led Zeppelin-esque styled blues swagger.

Of course, like so many bands of this ilk at the moment, there is an injection of the occult, but Kadavar probably have more in common with the acidic fizz of Hawkwind than the sluggish gloom of Sabbath.

The first two tracks – ‘Come Back Life’ and ‘Doomsday Machine’ – are relatively upbeat rockers, bringing to mind the fresher Black Sabbath sound circa Never Say Die! (1978); the drum sound is dry, the vocals soaring and the riffs heavy but nimble instead of labouring away.

Bearded vocalist Wolf Lindemann, complete with sheepskin coat, is the perfect throwback rock frontman. His wails are nothing fancy amid the cacophony of bubbling bass, blues-infected solos and cascading drums courtesy of the wonderfully named Tiger. As a trio they look like a bunch of merry trolls you’d expect to find under a bridge in some misty, remote village, but the music they play does have the same appeal as those crusty, no frills rock records of the 1970s.

‘Dust’, ‘Fire’, ‘Liquid Dream’ and the title cut are pretty formulaic, at times the band happy to inject a dose of doomy funk, whereas ‘Rhythm For Endless Minds’ is laced with the breeze of the cosmos and is my favourite track on this debut platter. The song spirals in on a trippy effect with plodding drum and scorching guitar twirl – Lindemann’s vocals are a mere watery swirl – reminding us of Black Sabbath at their most tranquil and Hawkwind at their most galactic.

Kadavar will most probably get lumped in with the current doom metal brigade, but Abra Kadavar is nothing of the sort. It’s a brisk rock album, sporting some decent lyrics and crisp production and isn’t bugged down completely by stuffy retro obsession. Of course, whether these sort of bands will still appeal in a couple of years we’ll just have to wait and see, but at the moment there is clearly a market for this type of shabby retro rock, and while it’s not the sort of stuff that betters the original psych-tinged masters of yesteryear, Abra Kadavar does enough to distance itself from the overtly formulaic clap-trap that is polluting the eardrums at the moment. Now, where did I put my flares and sepia-tinted glasses?

Neil Arnold

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