The Viking in the Wilderness Blog

Lonely Kamel: Blues for the Dead (2010)

Norwegian quartet LONELY KAMEL was formed back in 2005 if my sources are correct, and seek to blend the members love and appreciation for 70's hard rock, blues, psychedelic rock and doom metal. So far this has resulted in two full length efforts. "Blues for the Dead" is the most recent of these, and was released by Swedish label Transubstans Records in October 2010.

Musically we're dealing with a band exploring a territory not too many have ventured into prior to them. I could imagine that Robin Trower might have come up with similar material back in his heyday. If heavily on acid that is. And while covering Black Sabbath. The references to the latter are numerous, the bass guitar arguably the most constant and consistent of these. Along with the steady drums this crafts a heavy hitting, solid foundation for the proceedings, be it melodic, slow blues passages with fragile guitar notes harmonically resonating in the archetypical melancholy manner of that genre or the opposite part of this band's stylistic expression: Massive, dark, twisted and distorted riffs in the shape of drawn out notes resonating dark and twisted or surging patterns of the kind doom metal bands typically enjoy to torture out of their instruments.

Most times Lonely Kamel explores the middle ground between the extremes of blues and metal though, the guitar typically taking on a defined hard rock rather than metal type delivery and frequently utilized to provide the final ingredient to this mix, namely psychedelic textures. These guys know their heavy psychedelic rock quite nicely thank you, and sneak it in as subtle details or dominating traits. And while not always hitting the mark head on the material is astounding when they manage to get the perfect blend, and in the case of "Blues for the Dead" I'd pull out Stick With Your Plan as a good example of that. I really hope they do too, and that the song in question has a central place in it. Their plan that is.

While placing this band quite nicely into one of the numerous genre boxes many music nerds invent by the truckload is a hard ting to do, I guess stoner rock is the closest match. Arguably. Personally I try to avoid such categorization myself if possible. In this case I'd think that those who enjoy early 70's Black Sabbath, Robin Trower's first solo efforts and in addition find 70's psychedelic rock to be an interesting genre in general should have a field day with this production. And as they are an active live unit, they'll probably be just as enjoyable in that setting as on your home stereo, if not even more so.