I was worried. Valtari really felt like a dead-end for Sigur Rós. They’d done the slow, elegiac thing for so long, it appeared they’d sunk to miasmic navel-gazing. While that record evoked the placid glaciers of their native Iceland, Kveikur reminds us not to forget the volcanoes.
This is the most aggressive thing they’ve ever done, and it’s a welcome new direction. With the departure of keyboardist Kjartan Sveinsson, they’re down to a trio, and the emphasis is on sparser and more direct arrangements. Lead single “Brennisteinn” is a stately piece buoyed by a heavily gated and overdriven bass. For all its sturm und drang, it’s still a Sigur Rós song, buoyed by an irrepressible chorus. A bit past the midpoint, the distortion disappears, and it switches to a double-time chorale.
Dýrason’s imaginative percussion takes center stage on “Hrafntinna,” and the instrumentation is novel, even if the track drags on a bit more that necessary. Continued...