Dunbarrow [LP]

Vinyl LP pressing. 2017 debut album by the Norwegian band that has been playing together for over eight years through different band names and genres. Summoned to play it the old way in a new age, Trondheim, Norway quintet Dunbarrow draws inspiration from freezing winter nights, unpolished demo tapes from the '70s and Swedish throwback rock from the beginning of the 21st century. The result is Norwegian proto-doom with a back-to-basics sound, from Pentagram and Witchfinder General to Quicksilver Messenger Service. The band's clean, unadorned sound shares the unpretentious brilliance of classic heavy progenitors playing basements and barns, before the big budgets and bloated habits diluted hard rock into an echo chamber awash in reverb and layered in distant, screeching hobbits. This nine-track self-titled album is a classic: every song is instantly recognizable after just one listen.