Swedish progressive sludge/stoner metal act VAK return with their new full-length album »The Islands«, out now via Indie Recordings

Stockholm, Sweden based progressive sludge/stoner metal act VAK return with their new full-length album, »The Islands«, which was just released on September 1st, 2023 via Indie Recordings.

VAK states: “This is progressive sludge. Two flavors so perfect to combine but hard to elaborate on.

Picture a potpourri of voluptuous fruits covered in dark and dense chocolate. Join us on this sensory journey into a different and uncompromising world, painted in unheard chords.”

Tracklist:
01. Passport
02. Panorama
03. Sewer Café
04. Q & A
05. Speed Of Images
06. The Map
07. Bodies
08. Melody Junkie

Courtesy of Indie Recordings:

Praised for their ability to incorporate more than just one style and genre in their music, drawing inspiration from a great variety of bands and artists, VAK’s new album »The Islands« is something to look forward to! The album is released in September 2023, featuring eight new tracks developing VAK’s distinctive sound even further.

The sound of VAK is hard to grasp. Jesper Skarin (vocals, bass): “We would be happy to tell people how we sound, but it’s tough. When five guys like us with different inspirations collaborate in our democratic fashion, the outcome is unpredictable and not reducible to single styles.”

After 3 long years VAK is finally back with new music. The brutally melodic, progressive sludge band released a wonderfully dynamic double single »Panorama / The Map« in March 2023.

»Panorama« is the first track from the double single, an upbeat little devil, and a force to be reckoned with. Through hypnotizing rhythms and vibrating and mesmerizing vocals you are chanted into an unknown soundscape.

The second single »The Map« is a seven-minute sludge beast journey bringing you both the powerful and sludgy dimensions and the progressive aspects of the band with head tilting grooves, heavy dark rhythms, and intelligent clean build ups.

VAK states: “The first singles of our new album address, firstly, the theme of Stockholm’s beautiful and treacherous »Panorama«, its lying and sinister post-card character. Secondly, they suggest how city-surveillance needs more resistant and downloadable “cop-maps”, enabling a policing of police. Despite the gravity of these issues, we had fun recording for example the backing vocals on »The Map«” calling on the listeners to “download” the not yet existent maps.”

Order mesmerizing new album »The Islands« here:
shop.indierecordings.no
vakband.bandcamp.com/album/the-islands

Writen and produced by VAK.
Artwork by Jonathan Hultén.

VAK is:
Tobias Alpadie – Guitars
Anders Bartonek – Drums
Patrik Engström – Guitars
Jesper Skarin – Bass, Vocals
Robin Skarin – Keyboards

FFO: Devin Townsend, Les Big Byrd, Kanaan, Motorpsycho, Conan, Monolord

Bojan Bidovc // music enthusiast, promoter, misanthrop and sometimes a journalist as well