Kveikur
Best known for ethereal and atmospheric post-rock, Sigur Rós\'s seventh studio album, *Kveikur*, makes a bold departure from that sound in favor of tracks that are darker, heavier, and louder. Filled with industrial crunches, cymbal crashes, and moody synths, *Kveikur* is both stunningly aggressive and intricate. The band\'s signature sounds—Jonsi\'s featherweight falsetto and bowed guitar—ring out across each song like a church bell in a thunderstorm. The impenetrable weight of tracks like \"Brennistein\" makes its uplifting songs (\"Stormur,\" \"Rafstraumur\") glow with transcendent warmth. All told, *Kveikur* is an exceptional achievement—simultaneously harrowing, heavy, and beautiful.
Sigur Rós' new album Kveikur is their first without founding member and keyboardist Kjartan Sveinnson, a record reacting to the impossible standards set by their groundbreaking early work by exposing their gnarled roots and demonic impulses.
Between Jónsi Birgisson’s inviting 2010 solo album, Go, and Sigur Rós’ recent cameo on The Simpsons, the band appears to be lightening up. Not that its output over the past 16 years is particularly heavy; if anything, its atmospheric music has set the benchmark for uplifting yet melancholic post-rock. During that…
After sly hints at a change in direction, Sigur Rós have delivered a record that's more menacing and more accessible than many would have believed possible.
Challenging this paradigm, Sigur Rós get sonically adventurous with their seventh album, Kveikur, which finds the Icelandic three-piece delivering a darker and more aggressive sound on one of their most daring albums to date.
Loose and roaring, Brennisteinn – the opening gambit of Sigur Rós' seventh studio album – is the sound of the band getting nasty. Beneath Jón Þór Birgisson's languageless vocals (by now so familiar that they seem vaguely embedded within us, elemental even), a thin, watery layer of strings tries in vain to assuage a byzantine bass line that – fed and re-fed through distortion to the point where it's begun to corrupt and pucker – hulks and strains at its shackles.
Sigur Rós' seventh full-length starts with amiasma of thunderous crashes. A year later and one member fewer than the paper-thin whisper that was previous album Valtari, it's almost as if the Icelandic trio is making up for lost time with sheer volume.
Clash reviews Sigur Ros' 'Kveikur', album number seven from the Icelandic band and something of a departure in style...
<p>Sigur Rós flirt with the idea of a darker sound, but – disappointingly – stick to what they know, writes <strong>Kitty Empire</strong></p>
Kveikur is a more pointed effort, stripped of the lavish, often self-serving production the band indulged in the past.
Review Of "Kveikur" From Sigur Ros. Kveikur will be released on June 18 via XL Recordings. Sigur Ros will be performing live dates throughout the summer.
Sigur Rós have a bit more sturm und drang on their latest, and it suits them well, writes <strong>Dave Simpson</strong>
Reconfigured as a trio, Iceland’s hardy sons make their most direct album to date. CD review by Kieron Tyler