Rikard Sjöblom's Gungfly
On Her Journey to the Sun

So, if you thought you would hear less or nothing more from Rikard Sjöblom now that his band Beardfish went the way of the dinosaurs, you would be wrong as he has done a lot of things and still does. Today I am looking at his project called Gungfly a project that goes through marshlands and that sort of thing with no solid ground under the feet, at least that is what the name of the project promises. This is the third album by this band and it contains a bonus disk with a best of record for Gungfly and it is on a very long journey towards the sun, a seventy-five minute long journey in eleven chapters.

Classic progressive rock is the best description of their style I would say, think of bands like Sjöblom’s Beardfish or other bands like King Crimson, Camel, Genesis, IQ and bands like that and you will know how these guys sound. Nothing really new, or different from progressive rock music that has come before them, fortunately it is a genre that is inherently different and creative so even though they are predictably unpredictable they still have something to offer. The production is good, vocals decent and the album itself is relatively varied but with some rather long and pointless instrumental parts plaguing the longest songs. And the album could certainly have been shorter and perhaps it could have avoided ticking off all the progressive rock boxes, generally I think the ten-minute-plus songs should be avoided as they are rarely worth the time and effort it takes to listen to them and this album is no exception and it has several of those songs.

While this may feel a bit lacklustre and typical of the genre I still think that it is a good album, the songs are generally good though the long songs could have been shortened to avoid the parts that feel boring. The track called Old Demons Die Hard is the one I like best on the album and all the long songs suffer from having long pointless parts that makes it seem as though they don’t fulfil their potential. If you like what Sjöblom has done before I think you will like this one as well as it sounds quite similar to that, and I think that it doesn’t offer much in terms of surprises and that there are already better albums released in this genre in 2017 so unless you are a record hoarder there is really no need for this one. Of course, preferences vary so if you like progressive rock music and the bands mentioned in this review you should have a closer look at this one.

I think Sjöblom does well but this is not a spectacular album and it has too many weak points to really shine. Chances are that she will burn up on her journey to the sun, but she will do that in a fairly enjoyable way.

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