Dozer – Drifting In The Endless Void

by Mark 'Yeti' Richard · Published August 26, 2024 · Updated August 28, 2024

Drifting In The Endless Void is the latest album from Borlange, Sweden’s Dozer. The record came out on April 21st,2023. The anticipation I had building up to this release was overwhelming. I have been a huge fan for over two decades and the band had not recorded new material in over fifteen years. They released an EP called Vultures in 2013 but the songs were recorded back in 2004, prior to Through The Eyes Of Heathens, which came out in 2006. So the last official release before this was the epic album Beyond Colossal, released at end of 2008, on Small Stone Records. I discovered the band somewhere around 2004, when Call It Conspiracy was out. I became an instant fan and proceeded to get their other two records, Madre De Dios (2001) and their debut In The Tail Of A Comet (2000.) Dozer released other EPS and split records with Unida, Brain Police, Los Natas, Giants Of Science, and fellow Swedes, Demon Cleaner also.

Drifting In The Endless Void, released on Blues Funeral Records, features seven songs and clocks in just under 43 minutes. The first thing I noticed upon listening is the incredible sound quality. The production is amazing! Karl Daniel Liden (former drummer on Heathens and Vultures) recorded, engineered, and mastered the record, along with their last one Beyond Colossal. Every instrument sounds perfect in the mix, especially the heavy drum sound. The lineup on this record is: Fredrik Nordin on vocals and rhythm guitar, Tommi Holappa (also originator and creator of Greenleaf) on lead guitar, Johan Rockner on bass, and playing drums, Sebastian Olsson (also in Greenleaf.)

The first song is called “Mutation/Transformation” and is seven and half minutes long. What a banger of a song this is! It starts with guitar and cymbal accents which progresses into heavy toms and crazy drum fills and heavier riffing. The build up keeps going and then the vocals kick in. The riff plays out and then more accenting with cool vocal parts that only Dozer can do. Fredrik’s voice is in true form. He’s got a great singing style and aggressive enhancements too. The music sounds better than ever! The song has an almost orchestrated arrangement to it and build up around the main riff. The second track “Ex-Human, Now Beast “ was the first single off the record and it smokes. It kicks right in with trademark Dozer riffing and unbelievable drum fills throughout the whole song. The guitar leads and dynamics are spectacular and they go into a cool bridge with snare rolling and excellent guitar playing. “Dust For Blood” is next and it is completely stellar. Being the second single from the record, it pulls out all the stops. It starts with guitar and then cool rocking drumming. The guitar then stops allowing the bass and drums to carry along when the vocals start in with the verses. The guitar comes back in flourishes and throughout the chorus parts. Nordin’s voice is amazing and a standalone on certain parts which really accentuates the song. It’s a pretty catchy tune in its own right. The next song “ Andromeda” starts out a little melodic but soon kicks into the rhythm. When the vocals start they chill back out and let the guitar carry things along. The dynamics of light to heavy that Dozer instill in their music is spectacular. This track displays that perfectly. Every song on this record sounds like an anthem! The band is so capable of filling in a lot of space with every note, accent, and pauses alike. Nothing sounds out of place or overdone and the epic songwriting is very calculated and particular. Both of the songs “No Quarter Expected, No Quarter Given” and “Run, Mortals, Run!” execute this point clearly.

With the final track entitled “Missing 13,” Dozer close out this record with another gold mine. Lead guitarist Tommi Holappa commented, “after we finished “Missing 13”, the first song we wrote for the album, we knew we were onto something.”The band decided to make a concept album based upon the theme of this song, he added, “”Missing 13” is the plot of the story and the rest of the songs are based on the same concept. We received this Earth from our ancestors and took it for granted. We humans are little cogs in this big machine, and sometimes that can make you feel very small and helpless. Hence this feeling of “drifting in the endless void””. The song has a beautiful quality of music and structure that transcends into a monumental finisher for a masterpiece of a record. It’s truly amazing that Dozer can put forth this gem of a record after being dormant for so many years. The magic of this band still exists and I truly hope that they will create another one in the not so distant future.