Astroqueen – Into Submission (Re:Mission)
Astroqueen is a stoner metal band based in Gothenburg, Sweden. They originally formed in 1998 and were first active until around 2005. In 2014, the band reformed and started jamming again until 2017. Finally, in 2022, they got back together once again and started playing shows and festivals. The current lineup includes founding members: Daniel Anghede on vocals and guitar, Daniel Tolergard on guitar, Johan Bachman on drums, and newest bassist, Ellinor Andersson. The original bassist was Mattias Wester.
In 2001, the band recorded their first and only studio full length release called Into Submission. The record was engineered and produced by King Diamond guitarist Andy Larocque and was originally on Pavement Music. I remember buying this CD sometime around 2003-04 from the now defunct stoner rock dot com distribution site, All That’s Heavy. I was very impressed by this release and listened to it often throughout the years. Finally, in December of 2023, Astroqueen had the record remastered by Esben Willems (Monolord) and released it back into the masses.
Into Submission is classic stoner rock from Sweden. The early 2000’s was a breeding ground for desert rock thanks to the almighty Kyuss, Fu Manchu, Nebula, and Monster Magnet, among others. Bands like Lowrider and Dozer were leading the charge in Sweden with the Kyuss influenced desert rock. However, so many excellent bands seemed to be emerging from Sweden and displaying great promise and help popularize this style of music. I discovered many great bands in that time including Astroqueen.
I remember first listening to the Into Submission CD and thinking wow, these guys have some of the fuzziest sounding guitars I’ve ever heard. I loved their blanket of fuzz sound and really enjoyed the songs on this record. Astroqueen play high octane classic stoner rock! The songs are all heavy and rocking and touch on themes about space travel and the likes, pretty typical in that late 90’s and early 2000s era. You can’t help but crank up the volume when listening to Into Submission. From the grooving and full rocking opener “Landslide” to the fuzz frenzied songs like “Soulburner,” and “Superhuman God”, Astroqueen were a solid band and offered a lot of good material. The heavy “Rufus Jr.” swagger that goes right into “Planet Dust” is one of those moments. I like Anghede’s vocals and it fits the songs really well. “The Sonic Ride” has that classic vibe to it and both guitars play complimentary with each other with octave melodies and the works. Another example of this is the second song ”Out Of This World“ where one guitar is playing a lead along to the rhythm accompanying the vocals. It’s sounds very cool. “I Go To Sleep (I’m Gone)” is another good one that starts with clean guitar and gets fuzzy in no time.
The first song I ever heard from Astroqueen was “Serve The Sun.” The stoner rock site used to have a mp3 jukebox where you could sample songs from all the records that they were reviewing and selling. The song has that unmistakable fuzz rocking groove that interested me right away. The almost static sounding production of the recording gives it such warmth. It’s a shame that Astroqueen didn’t release any other full length records. They did a split release with the band Buffalo in 2004 which was decent but didn’t sound as good, production wise. They also had an earlier EP called Themes From The Magic Ocean which came out in 1999.
The remastered edition of Into Submission features an unreleased song from the same recording session called “Catapult.” It’s a great addition to this record. It’s like hearing a new Astroqueen song but not really. I like it just the same as it rocks like all the others. It was definitely a pleasant surprise for the band to remaster this album and make it available again on all the streaming services too. I really feel that Astroqueen was an integral component to help launch the original Swedish heavy rock movement. I will always hold this record in high regard and still enjoy listening to it today, twenty something years after it was released. The sound holds up nicely and it’s great that the band is active again. Let’s hope to hear another fuzz worthy record of Astroqueen in the future.
https://astroqueen.bandcamp.com
