One of the aims of our little enterprise is to give more attention to Album releases, which in the world of Playlists and streaming services, can often get forgotten about. Its way too easy to find a new artist, add their most listened to tracks to a playlist and forget about their albums. I say this because when I first came across Norwegian band Dig Deeper, and their single ‘Dreaming with Einar’, I thought it was likeable enough, but I’d probably have been tempted to playlist it somewhere and may have forgotten about checking out the album.
So its only by listening to the whole of ‘How You Spend Your Days’ by Dig Deeper, I’ve really appreciated what a fine album this is. ‘April Haze’ the opening track opens well with a solid guitar riff that reminds me of some of my favourite late 80’s bands , Einar Kaupangs vocals are distinctive and interesting, and throughout the track we get an intense guitar that backs it all up. My favourite track ‘Let me Ride’ comes early on the album, and it’s another powerful track, with a great melody and dark slightly menacing guitars.
Listened to in the context of the rest of the album, the pre-album single ‘Dreaming with Einar’ is a great song, simpler than many other of their tracks, but its equally as effective, and emotional too. The overall sound is described as ‘Mountain Rock’ on the bands Facebook page, to me it combines elements of progressive, post, psych and Americana rock.
Maybe with such an impressive guitar sound throughout, I wanted more extremes of darkness and light in the instrumental sections, but that’s probably just a personal preference (probably based on listening to way too much Crippled Black Phoenix). And there are a couple of slightly less convincing tracks to me such as ‘Cast no Light’, which i don’t connect with quite as much, but maybe I just need to listen to them more.
Overall Dig Deeper have a different sound to so many bands that I’ve listened to recently, and I’ve really enjoyed familiarizing myself and enjoying it. ‘How You Spend You Days’ will take you on a real journey, its powerful, full of good melodies, with big intense instrumental sections and I like it very much indeed.
(‘How You Spend Your Days’ is released on Friday 23rd January.
Nordic Music Review 7.5/10