review: Dead Kosmonaut

Dead Kosmonaut

Rekviem

High Roller Records

20.09.2019

Well, this is weird. Really, just about the weirdest piece of information that you might hear all year. Unless you are already in the know, like probably some fans and musicians in Sweden are, because they have known the information for a while now (or some German fans who have seen the band live already), these Swedes might surprise quite a few people. The music is traditional progressive, with both a 1970s vibe of musical freedom and the classics of 1980s heavy metal, all kind of coexisting for the sound that is Dead Kosmonaut. You might feel like some segments remind you of Pink Floyd, while others might make you think of Iron Maiden/Thin Lizzy.

That’s not the weird part.

The weird part is the singer. Notice that it says “singer,” not the more general “vocalist.” It was necessary to double and triple check this information about the identity of the singer. The promo information received by this publication says that the singer is none other than the infamous leather-spikes-bulletbelted maniac primarily known for being the outlandish screamer for the old-school extreme metal band Nifelheim (He has done other vocal work, all which has been screaming and raging like a lunatic of black/death/thrash metal). Yet only now we are finding out that he can sing and sing well? What kind of madness is this?! The music gives the guitar lots of room to breathe and work the melodies. Fans of bluesy, progressive melodic guitar should take special notice of this band. It is perhaps the biggest and most important selling point, given the quality of the guitar playing. Of course, then there’s the singing! Good stuff.

Anyway, this 24-minute EP will be of interest to those fans that want classic rock of the 1970s and classic metal of the 1980s in their contemporary prog. The EP is three songs of 4-5 minutes and a fourth one that lasts 10 minutes. All the songs have a feel of freedom, but the last song takes the grandiose freedom of the heavy metal progressive blues to another level. An enticing EP for the fans of oldie but goodie contemporary prog.

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