Once upon a time I picked an album to review based on its cover art. It was an album by a Norwegian band called Shevils. That artwork was completely bonkers with Cthulhu dressed as a cowboy riding a manta ray and much, much more. This was back in 2013. I liked that album so much it made my yearlist. In 2015 Shevils released a second album. Again with brilliant artwork and music. After that everything became quiet. I was pleasantly surprised to see their name pop up in our promo-box.
After spinning the album loads of times I conclude happily that they haven’t lost their touch. I must admit I was afraid the long absence might have damaged our bond, but it has not. Let’s start with the obvious, they still have an excellent choice when it comes to picking artwork for their releases. I love this type of art to bits. It almost looks more like the front page of a comic than of an album.
I once said this band reminds me of the best parts of Soapbox, Helmet and the faster parts of Refused combined. They still do. Don’t fix it if it isn’t broken, right? Shevils have fine tuned their songwriting capabilities, though. And they needed to do that. Their second album was good, but at the time I was hoping they could top their debut. A third album in exactly the same vain would not have lived up to my expectations. The small changes and extra influences makes Miracle Of The Sun their best album so far.
These ten tunes go by really fast. It is so much fun it feels shorter than the half hour it lasts. This is perhaps also the biggest difference between their influences and Shevils: this feels like this is about having fun! As opposed to trying to sell a message to you. I am ok with the latter, but sometimes I just want some good vibes oozing out of my stereo.
There are a couple of nice touches in addition to the reguler post-hardcore, punk vibe. I really do dig the background choir on “We Failed This World”. The best two tracks of this album are to be found on the front half of this record being “Scandinavian Death Star” and “Monsters On TV”. The first has a bit more metallic vibe that makes it stand out on his record. The latter has an almost stoner like vibe (although it is not really relaxed enough to be a real stoner riff) in its main riff that makes it incredibly catchy.
Like I said, this record is over before you know it. The last song is ironically called “It Never Ends” which can be true if you know how to use the repeat button. I know how to use it and will spin this one again while advising you to check out Shevils. Have fun!
