Review Summary: The soundtrack on the road to hell.
Superautobahn is Croatian noise/psychedelic rock group Seven That Spells' latest offering, coming out in less than a year after 2011's
The Death And Resurrection Of Krautrock: AUM. This time, there is a different mindset, the record reportedly consisting of long, repetitive jams to accompany the listener on the road (hence the title
Superautobahn). However, the album can as well be the soundtrack on the road to hell while driving on acid. The music is again chaotic and the abundance of guitars (and saxophone solos this time) is stunning.
Superautobahn is made of three long jams that, together, have almost an hour, meaning there's enough feedback and frantic solos to drive the listener insane. While there are some cool hooks on each track, they are usually drowned at one point in the wall of noise. Besides different musicians that have played with founding member Niko Potočnjak back in 2007 when the album was recorded, Acid Mothers Temple's guitar player Kawabata Makoto makes a guest appearance on
Superautobahn, adding a lot to the overall insanity.
The opening track, "The Wall", features the standard Seven That Spells formula, meaning complex drumming patterns and extended screeching guitars jams. There is a short interlude in the middle of the song that lets the listener's ears have some rest, before restarting to a crushing finale of wah solos and feedback. On the other hand, "The Pyramid" dares to be more spiritual, opening up with spacey synths and slowly adding a clean, repetitive rhythm and religious chants, before the dissonant and feedback laden guitars enter, launching the song deep into space. During the track's 20 minutes, there aren't many changes, the band only adding more layers to the song. The last song, "The Colossus", is the pinnacle of
Superautobahn, being a massive, noisy guitar showdown: there are distorted riffs and solos coming from everywhere, drowning the bass and pushing sonic boundaries by carrying it on and on, much like previous odysseys such as "Hell From Jazz" did. This is a really suitable ending to such a manic record and the complementary instruments present here, such as the saxophone and piano, add to the demented feeling of
Superautobahn.
The downside is that
Superautobahn doesn't have such a replay value mostly because it's repetitive and hard on the ears, but the album sounds as equally interesting as previous Seven That Spells albums. There are more distinguishable rhythms this time, but they are only a vehicle for the guitar solos that easily take over them. So, for those who are into noise rock and psychedelic/acid music this is a great addition.
