DYING VICTIMS PRODUCTIONS is proud to present SKRÄCKEN’s highly anticipated debut album, Echoes From the Void, on CD and vinyl LP formats.
Formed in 2022, Sweden’s SKRÄCKEN are a band with roots in the forests around a small village in northern Dalarna. The idea for SKRÄCKEN was born through sleep paralysis, where an old lady in an 18th-century dress came to visit: the title of their debut EP, The Presence, was thus apt. The quintet may be new in name but include in their ranks vocalist Sofie-Lee Johansson, formerly of the late / great Night Viper.
If the 19-minute The Presence was but a foretaste of their potential, SKRÄCKEN are set to blow open the doors with their first full-length, Echoes From the Void. Totaling nine songs in 41 minutes, SKRÄCKEN’s debut album is a tour de force of moody, melancholic hard rock that seemingly sits in its own category. With some sort of strange magick, the Swedes evoke ancient visions of obscure ‘70s and ‘80s hard rock without sounding exactly like anyone; it’s more down to feeling, of being lost in time but not quite knowing how you got there. Across Echoes From the Void lingers a thick fog of the occult – the sulfur and brimstone swirl just at the corners of perception, as do visions of misty moors – and the brisk-but-never-busy gait of SKRÄCKEN’s songwriting helps cement the sensation of hypnosis or, indeed, sleep paralysis. But through it all, the band remain hard-rocking to the very end, melancholic their muse may be. Of course, Johansson’s powerful & distinctive pipes vividly illustrate these visions drawn from paintings by Zdzislaw Beksinski and the dark sides of society. Open your ears and hear SKRÄCKEN’s Echoes From the Void!
