Tag: Caravan

Review: Cavaran – Nights at Josan

Returning after three years since their last album, Belgium’s Cavaran remind us that stoner / desert rock is alive and well in Europe with their new album, Nights at Josan.

I don’t know where Josan is. The cover makes it appear to be some sort of Southwestern U.S. ghost town. As far as I can tell, there are only five places named Josan in the world, and none of them are in the United States. They’re in North and South Korea, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Croatia. Of course, it could just be a cool place Caravan made up, or visited while shredding riffs that became out-of-body experience – because there are plenty of those on this record.

“It Gives” revs up the motor of your dust-covered motorcycle and launches you down a highway that stretches across mountains and seemingly upward into the sky. Patrick Van Der Haegen‘s bass on “Dying Whales” is the sound of giant marine mammal hearts. “Bad Roads and Mountains” is a stand-out with Lieven Tronckoe‘s metal guitar riffs leading the charge.

“Way Down Low” sends your motorcycle ride down a steep hill and into a dark, possibly werewolf-infested valley, and then “Snail Horns” has you swinging a chain at those same monsters as you blast down the main street of their creepy town. It is anything but slow like a snail. “Storm” is a banger. The groove on it is undeniable and hooks you right away. Your desert road heads into a thunderstorm that will either refresh you or pummel you, possibly both.

“Strawberry Butt” might have a silly title, but it might also be the hardest-hitting track on the album. Everything about it slams into you like hot wind coming down from a sacred mountain. “Black Trip” is a great groover that shows off Gert D’hondt‘s dexterity on a drum kit, and “Bullface” is a great way to close the record – as it practically launches you off a cliff like Evel Knievel over Snake River Canyon. The whole band clicks like a well-tuned engine and leaves you with wind-blown hair and sand-blasted skin.

Again, I don’t know where Josan is, but I want to visit there. You will, too, after hearing this.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Polder Records!]

Review: Cavaran – Bulldozer

My wife and I recently hired a young woman to tutor us in French via Zoom. She asked us what we hope to do with the language. We mentioned being able to travel easier in Europe and other parts of the world, of course, but I also thought, “I’d like to be able to chat with all these stoner and doom metal bands coming out of France and Belgium right now.”

Cavaran, hailing from Belgium, is one such band, and their five-song EP, Bulldozer, is another fine example of the European stoner metal scene putting out some of the best examples of the genre right now. Opening track “Walter” is led by Patrick Van Der Haegen‘s groovy and heavy bass groove while Lieven Tronckoe‘s guitar soars like a peregrine falcon one moment and burns through the cosmos like a Moebius-designed spaceship the next.

Not to be outdone, drummer Gert D’hondt gets “Dino” off to a roaring start with hits as hard as a stampeding brontosaurus. Tronckoe and Van Der Haegen are just as aggressive, sounding like gunships flying over a raging wildfire. “Holy Grail” is another furious rocker, sounding like something Foo Fighters could’ve made if they’d kept a harder edge and didn’t worry about their next big single.

“Wörner” has a wicked groove to it that gets your head banging, but not so hard you’ll have whiplash by the end. Van Der Haegen’s bass again leads the charge and it sounds like D’hondt’s drum kit has a dozen cymbals attached to it at some points. The closer, “Bigfoot,” is as heavy and mythical as its namesake with Tronckoe shredding like a chainsaw in a Pacific Northwest forest, D’hondt using fallen trees to beat his kit, and Van Der Haegen stalking you the whole time like some kind of beast.

Bulldozer packs a lot of power into just five songs, the longest of which is just over six minutes. You can either jump onto the scoop shovel and race into battle with it or let it crush you. It’s your choice.

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe.]

[Thanks to Polder Records.]