10,000 Years
III

It is sci-fi adventures when Swedish trio 10,000 give us albums, their debut album II looked quite Star Wars with a setting very much like Luke Skywalker in the Dagoba System, and this new album has a look that reminds me of Star Trek Voyager Episode Bliss. I haven’t been listening closely to the concept, so I have no idea if the crew of the Albatross, the main ship in this story, has adventures like that or if 10,000 years have conjured up something different while the artist drew inspiration from these stories. The wormhole-like cover of this album is hardly unique though, I have seen several covers akin to that look – but that is not to say that it isn’t great, this cover makes me want to buy this album on vinyl.

They write their adventure in stoner, doom, or sludge metal stylings, with heavy riffs and screamy vocals they tell us their adventure. Powerful and modern production, not very unique when it comes to the songs, you cannot claim that 10,000 Years break any new ground with their new album. The variation over the tracks is decent, and they keep the playing time to 47 minutes. And you don’t really need to care about the storyline, as the music is the lead here, the songs can be enjoyed without delving deeper into the story it tells.

This is a fun album with good songs, good power and a sense of grandeur that a space adventure should offer. So far so good, but I am missing an outstanding song, I am missing some greater focal points, something that draws a listener to the album. I would also have liked a bit more dynamic sound, and more diversity throughout the songs. I want to buy for the cover, but the music is not as great and I cannot afford to buy vinyl records only to look at them, that would be a waste of money I don’t really have. For me it should be at least as fun to listen to the album as looking at it, and in this case the graphic artist is way better than the musical artist.

It is an album to check out if you are into the sludge, stoner, doom kind of metal, it should be a good chance that this is for you if you are. From the wider angle it isn’t that exciting though, it would sound like countless other stoner albums, and doesn’t offer anything that make 10,000 stand out from anything else in the genre. Therefore it is likely that this attractive album will remain hidden in the underground for a select few to find, and that could be exactly what they were going for. In the end I find myself steering my spaceship in a more Dutch direction while 10,000 Years ends up landing on some forgotten asteroid forever awaiting a visit from a guy selling spare parts for the beat-up Albatross.

HHHHHHH