Review

Review

Album Review: Spielbergs – Vestli

The Oslo trio return with a visceral, aggressive second album of anthemic indie rock

Norway’s Spielbergs have chosen a pretty apt name for themselves. While it’s less likely these days that a guitar band will do Jurassic Park box office, there’s a crowd-pleasing, thrill-ride sensibility to their brand of indie rock that feels akin to the great director at his most visceral. If it’s anything, it’s the musical version of Duel or Jaws. Less schmaltz, more spectacle.

Spielbergs - The New Years Resolution

In musical terms, the Oslo trio stalk that territory where anthemic indie and raucous punk intersect. Japandroids spring to mind, especially in the buzzsaw guitars that permeate. There’s a grandiosity in how the gigantic choruses swing for the nosebleed seats, not unlike Titus Andronicus in their deliciously overblown classic rock mode. There’s also a touch of the much-missed Cymbals Eat Guitars in their toe-tapping, ear-bleeding Springsteen-with-17-overdrive-pedals approach. It’s impossible to resist.

Spielbergs - When They Come For Me

The impressive thing about Vestli –Speilberg’s second album and first for the great Oxford label Big Scary Monsters (American Football, Meat Wave, Kevin Devine) – is that it’s not their natural habitat. These songs are designed to be hollered at a sweaty throng that hollers them back in turn. A lot of bands struggle to recreate that energy on record but Vestli hum with relentless energy from start to finish. There’s an almost thrash metal attack on songs like ‘Go!’ It’s big, it’s aggressive and it’s going to be a hell of a lot of fun live.

Vestli is available to buy and stream from 19 August. Catch Spielbergs at Heartbreakers in Southampton in September. Get tickets here.