Gaupa – Fyr
Release Date: 4th July 2025
Label: Magnetic Eye Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Stoner, Psychedelic, Folk, Doom.
FFO: Queens Of The Stone Age, Alunah, The Sugarcubes.
Review By: Paul Franklin
When I reviewed the band’s previous album on this very site back in 2022 (see here https://www.metalepidemic.com/gaupa-myriad/), I, rather presumptively, devised a scale by which you could determine your potential enjoyment of that album. The BTL. The Bjork Tolerance Level.
The higher the BTL, the higher the potential enjoyment, because (as you may have guessed) singer Emma Naslund sounds so similar to the Icelandic pop pixie it’s uncanny. However, if you find her ‘unique’ vocal contortions ‘nails down a blackboard’ irritating, you would have struggled with that album, and you are going to struggle with this new five track mini album.
Guitarist Daniel Nygren left the band in 2024, and Gaupa have used his departure to manifest a “big turning point”, with the tracks on Fyr having been given a grittier, more aggressive sound, this is the band’s heaviest release to date. Indeed, at times during the likes of Ten of Twelve and Elastic Sleep, there is a very cool Tool-esque sound that creeps in.
And there lies the crux of the matter, the music is very good. The opening two and half minutes of Lion’s Thorn is superb, it sounds like it’s emerging from a thick, ethereal Scottish mist, rolling across the highlands. But then she starts singing….and it’s like watching a period drama only to have a Transformer burst through the ballroom wall.
Rereading my previous review, I realised that I kinda sat on the fence. I never revealed my own BTL…well let’s just say it’s so low it’s basically subterranean.
(2 / 5)
