Photo by: Maren Sundt-Hansen
Official press release:
OKKULTOKRATI sounds like they’re playing to you from a different dimension. Lead as always by grand visionary and songwriter Erik Svarte, their new album Raspberry Dawn is weird, Wired, and quite possibly the holy grail for those seeking radical rock reinvention and new sensations in the current era.
On Raspberry Dawn, OKKULTOKRATI thrusts the heretic rock and roll that they have cultivated since their 2008 inception into more extraordinary situations. Classic ’70s riffing, snotty punk, and brash old-school metal are inventively mixed with pulses and spies of darkwave and ice cold, psychedelic repetition. They execute these infectious tunes effortlessly, playing with the attitude they retained from their roots in rural hard rock attitude, and busting a propulsive stomp that aligns them closer to the clarity of recordings from decades past, also exemplified by spring reverb twangs that ping across the mix like rubber bands.
Erik Svarte’s electric guitars are run through high power fuzz mechanisms that rattle and roar like powerful engines. Vocalist Henning’s hoarse snarls and cries take on many forms but retaining an audible link to metal with their prickly delivery, phrased in triumphant catchy guises. An instant example of this is heard on the title track; a glorious rock anthem celebrating the bad boys of rock and roll such as Iggy Pop, the Ramones, and Alan Vega (RIP). The fresh addition of synth player Feffe Severin on Raspberry Dawn allows OKKULTOKRATI to fully expand in to their new stage, where nothing and everything is sacred. Adding organ touches, violent slaps of static, and blown out sci-fi overtures to the collective, Severin compliments perfectly the band’s preexisting taste for the curious and the macabre, amping up both the drama and the feel-good extremes that they have always lathered their sound in.
Hear “World Peace”, the opening track to OKKULTOKRATI’s Raspberry Dawn, below:
The new Raspberry Dawn LP is without a doubt a giant bound forward from Snakereigns and Night Jerks, and one that will surely lasso in more inquisitive ears. Whether you’re a devotee of sounds from the underground or in the market for a stadium rock fix, OKKULTOKRATI can somehow satisfy you all.
Southern Lord owner Greg Anderson said of the album:
“Fucked up in all the right places! Super original and I can say that I’ve definitely never heard anything like this! Visions of Bauhaus and Darkthrone listening to Joy Division albums by torchlight in the dark forests of Oslo.”
Raspberry Dawn will be released on all formats via Southern Lord on September 23rd. Stand by for further album info.
Raspberry Dawn track listing:
1. “World Peace”
2. “Raspberry Dawn”
3. “We Love You”
4. “Suspension”
5. “Hard To Please, Easy To Kill”
6. “Hidden Future”
7. “Ocular Violence”
8. “Magic People”
