SOL INVICTUS

The 18th album of Sol Invictus contains all the psychedelic dark folk we know so well from this band. The cynical sounding Tony Wakeford, mastermind of the band, is someone you (probably) love or hate. When he’s in lead of the vocals his voice is very unique and recognisable, but sometimes sounds a little tedious.

However, “Once Upon A Time” proves to be one of their better releases. Beautiful songs like the slightly bombastic semi-ballad ’The Devil’s Year’, the more folk oriented ’The Devil On Tuesday’ (with a heavy guitar part at the end), the strange (but great) ’Mr. Cruel’, the up-tempo song ’Our Father’, the rousing song ’War’, the typical Sol Invictus songs ’Once Upon A Time’ and ’The Path Less Travelled’ are examples of the high standard of this album.

“Once Upon A Time” contains several (short) instrumental tracks in which Sol Invictus show their seventies psychedelic rock influences. Normally these short intermezzos could disturb the atmosphere of an album, but Sol Invictus proves it’s possible to integrate it into the music and the feeling of the album. The production on this album is really superb (especially if you compare it to a lot of other dark folk bands).

Although Sol Invictus musically doesn’t surprise us much with new elements, the music proves to be of high quality and that’s the most important thing of music. Isn’t it? 

Ron SCHOONWATER
21/10/2014