Pascal’s third album ’Orkanen närmar sig’ is out and they hardly need any introduction. Both their two previous albums have been praised unanimously, fully deserved, and their previous album ’Galgberget’ was nominated for P3 Gold and won Manifest for best rock album. On ’Orkanen närmar sig’ they have further refined their minimalist cave rock a step further which now sounds heavier, harder and angrier than ever. Their terse social poetic texts are the finest lyrics and contribute as much to the desperation and feeling of the songs as the barren music. Pascal are undisputed masters of saying a lot with very little means.

For me, there is no doubt that Pascal is one of the best, if not the best, rock bands in Sweden ever and their third album ’Orkanen närmar sig’ is their absolute best so far. In their music, multitudes of styles (all their widely varying influences, from old man/fifties rock through post-punk/hard-synth to hard rock/death metal) constantly fight for attention but are masterfully subdued by Pascal to form the basis of what they themselves call cave rock. For example, I myself can clearly hear the similarity to the hard synth pioneers DAF and Pascal’s music. Both have the same approach of scaling down to the essentials and pumping it rock hard without losing the feeling for the finest melodies (which Pascal has plenty of).

In any case, you shouldn’t theorize too much about Pascal’s music, but rather experience it out loud, preferably live on a sweaty stage and next best at home on the stereo, turn up the volume properly, let the ”Hurricane” wash over you with full force and it will you quickly to understand Pascal’s force. https://frontl.ink/a318ybv