Kingdom of Evol - Dark Passages*Nocturnal Incidents

Freddie Wadling and Per Svensson are the people behind Kingdom of Evol - a project described as hard psychadelic postpunk. The record 'Dark Passages *Nocturnal incidents' was released on the 9th of May 2012. It has taken four years to finish and could be considered the record that connects Freddie Wadling of 2012 to him being a part of the dark underground scene in the 80's, and especially his old postpunk band Cortex. The record contains 10 tracks and is released on Progress Productions.

The record opens with the track "Fog", a mellow track that reminds me of Marilyn Manson's B-sides, strange noises interfering with Freddie Wadling's frail and eerie voice. "Black Light" follows in the same theme and the music blends well with the vocals, it's good, not exceptional but definitely tracks to set a nice mood for a rainy evening. Just as I'm getting myself settled in track three starts rolling, "What has become of us" - this track differs as the main vocals are rather preached than sung, it's OK but feels like a track that has more thought than feeling behind it.
"Machines" - track four brings back the feeling, this track grinds in to the marrow, I can just imagine turning this up on a smashing sound system in a dark underground club. The music is disturbing yet gentle and seductive and the vocals are spot on, goosebumps. The goosebumps stay with me till track six "Kingdom of Evol", just beautiful.

"Blues Beast" is pretty much what the name describes, harmonica blues in a hard ass way. Slow, hypnotic and disturbingly dark. "Beyond The Darklands", "Demons" are both comfortably suggestible and suit the record well. "Demons" in particular could just as well have been written by Christian Death in all its gothic postpunk glory. Last track "Voodoo Blues", oh my, this track could probably easily be sold to the "True Blood" series, it's sticky, harsh yet sexy as hell in a distorted sort of way. Fantastic finish to a really good album.

'Dark Passages*Nocturnal Incidents' is a nice mixture of postpunk, industrial and psychedelia but there's also hints of southern blues and medieval influences. It's experimental and at times just plain weird, some tracks are absolutely amazing the first time you hear them and other require several rounds before they stick. I would think that if you're a fan of Nick Cave and early experimental Marilyn Manson or of course if you're a fan of Cortex - this record won't disappoint you. Jun 08 2012