“The vastness of everything is something that I think about a lot,” says Spelljammer bassist / vocalist Niklas Olsson. And it certainly shows in both the expansive, sludgy sounds and contemplative lyrics of the Stockholm, Sweden based trio. Following a five year break between their previous album, Ancient Of Days—perhaps fittingly spent pondering said vastness—Spelljammer is back with an album that perfectly bridges the band’s earlier desert rock leanings and their later massive, slow-burning riffs. Abyssal Trip (note: carefully re-read that album title) takes its moniker from the perpetually dark, cold, oxygen-free zone at the bottom of the ocean. The six song, forty-four minute album fittingly embodies that bleak realm with rumbling, oozing guitars intercut with dramatic melodic interludes. The songs take their time to unfurl, making them even more hypnotic. Likewise, the lyrics take a poetic approach to establishing the sonic scenery. The recording process for this album differs from previous releases in that the band—guitarist Robert Sörling, drummer Jonatan Rimsbo and Olsson—opted to capture the performances while holed up in the mental bathysphere of a house in the countryside near Stockholm. “The songs benefitted from the relaxed environment of being away from everything,” Olsson explains. Indeed, the album sounds confident and meticulously arranged, afforded by the band’s isolation. Sörling mixed the album and it was mastered by Monolord drummer Esben Willems at Berserk Audio. Abyssal Trip is, just like its title suggests, an epic tour through desolate zones which yields much to discover. “Low, slow, crunchy...
LP $19.75
03/05/2021
CD $12.00
03/19/2021
Riding Easy Records presents a domestic reissue on CD and first time vinyl pressing of this celebrated Swedish trio’s 2010 debut album Inches From The Sun—a groove based hybrid of classic Desert Rock and rumbling European doom that launched the band to international acclaim! “Spelljammer is some sort of hybrid between Acid King and a balls-kicking machine that has been buried in the sand outside Kyuss’ rehearsal ‘space’ just waiting to be unbleached.” —PlanetFuzz “Here is yet another pretty amazing Stoner Rock band from Sweden, and man do these guys really deliver the goods. Slow, bass-heavy, and insanely fuzzed-out stoner doom jams are what this band is all about.” —Heavy Planet “This is for fans of Sleep, Lowrider, Kyuss, Slo-Burn and Acid King, but if this is a debut, one can foresee only great things for this band, including the overcoming of the masters!” —Sludge Swamp
LP $19.75
09/22/2017
CD $12.00
09/22/2017
Ancient of Days is not just the band's third release, but in many ways, a rebirth. It's Spelljammer's first recording as a trio - with Olsson taking over bass duties and new drummer Jonatan Rimsbo battering the skins - and the culmination of a progressive move toward a heavier, doom-laden sound, away from the desert rock leanings of their 2010 debut Inches From the Sun. Vol II saw the band spreading out into darker territories. After writing sessions fell apart in 2013 for a followup to Vol II (reissued in early 2015 by RidingEasy Records) Olsson and guitarist Robert Sorling scrapped nearly everything following the departure of half of the band. The two began to build from the ground up as a duo with new ideas that resulted in the invigorated Ancient of Days. It's the band's most focused and deliberate in both its complexities and simplicities. There's the pummeling heft of detuned guitars rumbling across the rugged expanse of unwieldy drums counterbalanced with moments of Master of Reality-era Sabbath's introspective acoustic breaks and Pink Floyd's Meddle-era psychedelia. These extreme shifts in dynamic give the band's third album a sense of epic depth unlike most of Spelljammer's peers.
LP $19.75
11/06/2015
CD $12.00
11/06/2015
Stockholm's Spelljammer VOL. II is like a herd of bison running off a cliff. Not for the faint of heart, this is one of the best doom albums of the last 10 years. If you like your music heavy and slow, there is nothing that quite satisfies the itch the way that Spelljammer does. Out previously on a very limited run of vinyl that has fetched $100 and more, this record is now made available to the masses via RidingEasy Records on LP and CD (for the first time ever).
LP $19.75
03/10/2015
CD $12.00
03/10/2015