Variola Vera
Karisma, 2021
8/10
The sophomore album from the Bergen, Norway rockers Himmellegeme, Variola Vera keeps their ominous, prog-rock ways intact as the dense riffs and haunting melodies float across the 8 tracks with much allure.
“Shaping Mirrors Like Smoke” starts the listen with plenty of shimmering atmosphere, as the keys and guitars build into a thundering and thick prog-friendly landscape, and “Heart Listening” follows with calm acoustic guitar, poetic singing and a dreamy quality.
“Brother” occupies the middle spot and flows with ambience and mystery that relies on strummed guitar and manipulated mood for the emotive album highlight, while “Let The Mother Burn” weaves in and out of pretty yet dark tension.
Near the end, “Agafia” carries some warm psyche-rock tendencies in its hypnotic formula, and the title track exits the listen with calm gestures of textured and pretty instrumentation that’s quite adventurous, too.
A very psychedelic and occasionally bluesy tinted affair, there are certainly legions of great bands in Norway playing with much attention to atmosphere, but few are doing it as well as Himmellegeme.
Travels well with: Monstereo- In The Hollow Of A Wave; Kosmodome- Kosmodome