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| FLIGHT - A Leap Through Matter LP | |
HRR 619, ltd 500, 200 x black + 300 x silver vinyl, cardboard inner sleeve | |
| Christoffer Bråthen - Vocals, Guitars Kristian Ingvaldsen - Guitars Jonas Bye - Bass Carl Christian Holm - Drums | |
| 01 Arrival 02 One with the Sun 03 The Pendulum 04 A Leap Through Matter 05 Ride On 06 The Traveller 07 Reviving Waves 08 Leave the Coast | |
AVAILABLE | |
Oslo’s Flight originally started out as a trio in 2012 with Chistoffer Bråthen on guitar and vocals, Jonas Bye on bass and Herman Holen on drums. In 2013, the line-up was completed by Kristian Ingvaldsen on second guitar. Following a compilation appearance on »Well 'Eavy Vol. 1«, the band’s self-titled debut album was released by Bad Omen Records in 2015 and was premiered at London’s “Live Evil” festival.
Flight’s overall sound is rooted in classic late 1970s heavy rock, with inspirations drawn from Judas Priest especially, but also from bands such as Di'Anno-era Iron Maiden, Winterhawk, Saxon and other British acts such as Camel and Pink Floyd.
After a further 7” single was issued on Bad Omen Records, Flight were looking for a new label, as bassist Jonas Bye explains: “When we looked for a fitting label for our second album, High Roller Records was our first choice and the only label we actually contacted. They have lots of amazing releases in their catalogue - it will be great to have our record next to those. Cool re-issues of classic albums as well as new killer releases. As a listener and buyer I've always had good experiences with them, and now as a HRR band they've also been great to deal with.”
»A Leap Through Matter« is the name of Flight’s second album, certainly a much stronger record than the debut. Jonas Bye has the full story: “Almost the whole debut album was written in our first two or three months as a band, mostly as a trio. »A Leap Through Matter« took a lot longer time to write, and it has much more complex songs, regarding the arrangements, riffs and transitions. The new album has been more of a collective work from start to finish, with lots of different ideas been thrown around and worked with. I'd say the main difference is complexity, which often is a hit-or-miss with bands evolving from their first to second album, but I believe we've made a much better album with »A Leap Through Matter«. I think we do have evolved, as most bands do. We’ve written better songs with more interesting structures and have spent more time layering the sound, both in additional guitars tracks, and vocals.”
»A Leap Through Matter« sounds like a very philosophical album title, do the lyrics in general follow a specific concept? “I wouldn't say the album follows a specific concept,” says Jonas Bye. “The lyrics are either written by Christoffer or me (if you write the song, you also write the lyrics), but I'd say there's a general theme throughout the album. A fair share of the lyrics deal with the realm of metaphysics and alienation, but on the other hand you got more typical heavy rock stuff like ‘speeding through the night blazing gasoline’. The title track is inspired by Frank Herbert's ‘Dune’, about gaining consciousness and universal knowledge.”
On the B-Side of their 7" single Flight have covered "Stormers Of Heaven" by Jersey's own Legend. Stylistically there are a few similarities between Flight and Legend. Has the band ever been in direct contact with Pete Haworth of Legend? Has Pete commented on their version of "Stormers Of Heaven" at all? “There's definitely some similarities between that track and our style in general,” concludes Jonas Bye. “At least for the debut album - and I think that's why we chose it as well. It seemed fitting. One mistake we did was to records it in E standard, while the original is in D. So Kristian had to sing super high on it. I tried contacting either Pete or Mike on Facebook prior to recording it to ask for the lyrics as they weren't to be found online, but I never got an answer. So to figure out the lyrics we listened to it each one of us by ourselves and then we compared notes and chose the lines that sounded most correct. I think what we got on our version is a lot of nonsense, but at least it sounds right!”
“There's quite a lively scene in Oslo in general, for concerts at least,” comments Jonas about the current state of his hometown scene. “There's a lot of concerts each week, almost too many, as they often fight for the same audience, so you end up with three shows at the same time, all sparsely attended. Heavy metal hasn't been that big here, at least there aren't many local bands. You've got us, Magister Templi, Black Viper and Black Magic. That pretty much covers the whole current Norwegian heavy metal scene. It wasn't that much better in the heydays either, with about 20+ Norwegian bands with releases within the genre of heavy metal throughout the entire 1980s. You got some quite decent Norwegian bands from the 1980s, such as Anesthesia, Hardline, Intruder, Manitou, Neon Night (check out if you like Dio or Dio-era Sabbath), Shellshock and so on. All of them overlooked in the bloom of traditional heavy metal in the late 2000s. Some of them only did a few quality songs of course, but that can also be said for some of the Swedish HM underground heroes that get a lot of hype. That being said, none of these bands have had an influence on Flight, really. Camel's »Mirage« is more of an inspiration for example. It's not exacly something you'll notice in the riffs, but more of how elements are structured and so on.”
Matthias Mader