THE VINTAGE CARAVAN is a band of 3 young fellas from Reykjavik, Iceland. Yep, the country that gave us really unique musicians and bands like BJÖRK and SIGUR RÓSS. It's fun juggling with the thought that a distant island with a population of less than 400,000 citizens keeps creating music that seems revolutionary to the ears of so many people all over the world. THE VINTAGE CARAVAN are no different. Though addressing an old retro kind of genre such as hard classic rock, they still manage to sound different; it's easy to find their distinct and unique voice rising when listening to their new album "Voyage".

The album starts with a big bang of energy with the track "Craving". It's such a pleasure hearing such a song as a first track of an album, it made me tell myself "yeah, I'm going to like this album" and I started wiggling in my chair instantly. The energy and heaviness (that has quite a metal feel to it) continues with the second track "Let Me Be", where most of the song is instrumental with an awesome guitar solo, showing how THE VINTAGE CARAVAN aren't scared of playing it by their own rules. Shifting to lower gear with the third track "Do You Remember", you get a chance to hear a different softer yet still slightly raspy voice of lead singer Óskar Logi Ágústsson, the soft guitars send you back to feeling like a flower child of the 60's. The next track "Expand Your Mind" was also made into a video, and hear me out here - you do *not* want to miss watching this one, it's a pure psychedelic trip masterpiece (directed by mastermind Bowen Staines). After watching it you will never look at hamburgers nor guinea pigs the same again! Did I mention the song is awesome too? It probably has the best bass solo in the entire album thanks to Alexander Örn Númason.

"M. A.R.S.W.A.T.T" is the fifth track, I wish I knew what these initials stand for, because then at least I could write something interesting about this song, at this point in the album I expected hearing something different than the clear vibe the album gave so far. Track 6 "Cocaine Sally" is the shortest song in the album, spiced with classic blues breaks, but it being short and bluesy didn't make it stand out. Track 7, "Winterland" felt like it's trying to put you in some kind of trance, but then at about the middle it changes rapidly and that trance elevates you to new lands, as if when that trance sank in, the body goes into an out of body experience and see amazing things outside in the cosmic universe, and then being gently placed back down again at the end of the song, and now you see the world through different eyes. Isn't it odd that with this meditative trance feeling "Winterland" made you feel, the next track is called "Midnight Meditation"? I felt like it was deliberate, THE VINTAGE CARAVAN are well aware of the listening manipulation they're giving their listener "Midnight Meditation" is energetic, and is filled with the "cowbell" effect by drummer Guðjón Reynisson which always cures any fever and also has bursting and explosive vocals that really stretch the edges of 'hell yeah' to new levels.

The album ends with "The Kings Voyage" a song of mega epic proportions: lengthwise, trippy-wise and by being pretty freaky in general. I loved the BLACK SABBATH feel to it after the eerie ambience beginning once the instrumental riff was building tension for the vocals. No doubt this song is an odyssey of awesome, it's trippy, and it totally rocks whenever it's not trippy.

Overall this is a very smooth smart album, with some really terrific tracks. Check these guys out.

​​