Top 5 On Friday – The Amazing Band Kal-El and their 5 Albums discussed
Every now and again, I discover a band that totally blows my mind. This happened when I heard Valley Of The Sun and Black Rainbows for the first time. I got sucked into their music and discography so much and became quite obsessed with their stuff. I would constantly listen to all of their material, anything and everything that I could find. Well, this happened most recently with the Norwegian band, Kal-El. I have heard about this band for some time now but never bothered to follow through and check them out. The similarities between Kal-El (named after Superman’s birth name) and both Valley Of The Sun and Black Rainbows is that they all have multiple albums available and they are all fantastic. Everything I have heard from these said bands is great! It just goes to show that there is so much incredible bands and music available nowadays that I am still finding out about. I thought I had a decent range of variety of bands in the stoner, doom, desert, fuzz, riff rock genre but I’m always discovering something new. It’s a beautiful thing! I am definitely more engrossed in the experience now, since starting the Jam Yeti Music Blog about five months ago. I am constantly researching and discovering everything appealing that I can listen to. It still surprises me when I find a band like Kal-El, that are already well established with five full length albums under their belt. Timing is everything with me and the music I encounter. It just so happens that Kal-El came at a perfect moment between finishing my last year’s reviews and waiting for this year’s onslaught of music to commence.
Recently, I decided to finally check out Kal-El and see what the buzz was all about. I started with Dark Majesty and then, all hell broke loose! I was totally blown away with their sound and how amazing their songs are! I proceeded to listen to everything that I could find from the band and to my surprise, they are all exceptional! How did I miss this band? I went down a huge rabbit hole with them and can’t stop listening to all of their recordings. As good fortune and coincidence would have it, the band is in the process of releasing new material in the next coming months. How fantastic! That’s when I got the idea to do a Top 5 on Friday post all about them and specifically their five albums. I am not going to rank them by favorites because I am not well adapted to make that decision, based on the short time that I started listening to them. Instead, I will just share my insights and thoughts about each record and hopefully spread the word about this amazing band to new listeners. Kal-El is the real deal for my musical tastes and interests and they check a lot of boxes of what I enjoy in heavy stoner/ doom/ riff rock/ metal, etc.
I found a suitable biography about Kal-El on:
**I edited it just a little for clarity**
“Kal-El is the fuzzed-out step-child of hard rock and heavy metal, often with hints of psychedelic and blues rock as well as doom metal. Songs typically feature a bass-heavy groove, detuned guitars, mind-expanding lyrics, and fuzz-pedals set to kill!
The band was formed in 2012 and has released 5 full length albums. Pakal was released on the 26th of May 2014, and the video for “Fire Machine” on the 26th of September 2014. Pakal was released in Japan on Wormhole Japan, on the 24th of September 2014. The second album, Ecosphere was released on the 22nd of August 2015.
In August of 2017, Astrodoomeda saw the light of day, and this album drew the attention of Tony Iommi himself and other rock’n’roll royalties such as Mr Blasko (Ozzy’s bassplayer). The record was re-relased in 2020 on Majestic Mountain Records and sold out in a few days. Extra copies have since been pressed to cover the demands. On the 6th of October 2019, Witches of Mars came and cemented the band in the scene with their now classic song, “Witches of Mars”. In the years of Covid-19, Kal-El recorded their new record, Dark Majesty. The singles was a success, and “Comêta” got A-listed on several radio stations. Dark Majesty is the heaviest and most complex record to date, and was release on August 27th 2021, on Majestic Mountain Records.”
Along with the five full length albums, Kal-El has also released a two song EP called Moon People, on September 22nd 2023. The band has released many singles and songs for various compilations too and put out a live album entitled, Live At Sonic Whip 2022. They are brilliant in their interpretations of cover songs, really making the songs they choose sound like their own. I especially enjoy the slow and doomy renditions of “Green Machine” from Kyuss and “Paranoid” from Black Sabbath. They add interesting life and sounds into Eric Clapton’s “Cocaine” and AC/DC’s “It’s A Long Way To The Top (If You Wanna Rock N’ Roll)”. The current lineup of the band consists of: Bjørn Harald “Bjudas” Stornes on drums, Ståle “Captain” Rodvelt on vocals, Kristoffer “Doffy” Ranaweera on guitar, Joshua “Josh” Bisama on guitar, and Bjørn Olav Knutsen on bass. The more recent former members to depart were Liz (Elisabeth Anette Meling Thompsen) on bass and Rolf Thore on guitar.
I am going to write a quick blurb about each of their albums and post them in order from when they came out. I love how Kal-El’s style naturally progresses on each record. I will also post a video for one of the songs on each record to check out. They usually released a new album every two years or so.
PAKAL
This is Kal-El’s debut album, and it was released in 2013. After the band’s three song demo Dark Moon Voyage EP came out in 2012, they included those tracks on Pakal. “Falling Stone”, “Spaceman”, and “Black Hole” were all part of the eight song album that also features “Upper Hand”, “Solar Windsurf”, “Quasar”, “Qp-9”, and “Fire Machine”. This is a fantastic debut album! The songs are more upbeat and straight up desert/ stoner rock sounding for the most part. It’s got ample amounts of fuzz and grooves throughout.
ECOSPERE
In 2017, Ecosphere was released and contains ten tracks total. The track list for the album is: “Astrogate”, “Shockblast”, “Nexus“, “Warp Rider”, “Citadel”, “Corona Azylum”, “Waldo”, “7th Sun”, “Starmist”, and “Needler”. The songs are riff centric and heavy like the debut and are mostly within the 3-5 minute range, with the exception of the almost eight minute “7th Sun” and the nearly six minute “Starmist”. The band start to incorporate more psychedelic elements with some of the songs like the two minute “Waldo” and parts in others. It’s another hard driven and solid album overall and Ståle “Captain” Rodvelt’s vocals continue to soar in such a dynamic way.
ASTRODOOMEDA
When Kal-El returns with their third album, 2017’s Astrodoomeda, their sound really morphs into a heavier doom driven avalanche. The songs have a lot of dynamics and psychedelic elements to them and some of the tracks are much more lengthier than their prior two albums. The track listing is: “Astrodoomeda”, “Atmosphere”, “Mothership”, “Code of the Ancient”, “Luna”, “Starlight Shade”, “Spacecraft”, and the classic Kyuss cover “Green Machine”. The sound quality of the recording is very dense too which really adds to the overall thickness and heaviness of each song.
WITCHES OF MARS
The band’s fourth album, 2019’s Witches Of Mars is another fuzzed out, psychedelic, heavy doom mastodon. The six tracks have a lot of substance and musical elements encapsulated into each song. Most of the tracks average around the 6-10 minute range. The track listing includes: “Anubious”, “Witches of Mars”, “GG77”, “Incubator”, “Moon Unit”, and the excellent Eric Clapton “Cocaine” cover. Kal-El utilizes nice keyboard and synth sounds on this album too, which further enhances their devastating sound.
DARK MAJESTY
The fifth album and the first one that I listened to was 2021’s Dark Majesty. The opening track “Temple” is amazing! It has a beautiful light to heavy build up that obliterates everything in its path. The over eleven minute masterpiece is so enthralling that it doesn’t register as long as it actually is. That’s a great thing because it keeps the listener locked in and engaged for the duration. The other seven tracks are “Spiral”, “Mica”, “Hyperion”, “Dark Majesty”, “Comêta”, “Kala Mishaa”, and “Vimana”. Every song is excellent! I really enjoy Kal-El and their amazing music. All of the songs are well crafted and satisfy my tastes in heavy stoner rock/ doom/ psych/ metal, and everything in between.
I really felt compelled to write about this amazing band. Once I started listening to them, they just announced their return with a new song and album to follow. The timing couldn’t have been better for me discovering Kal-El. Most of their releases have been on the excellent Swedish label, Majestic Mountain Records. I believe their new album will be a collaboration with Majestic and Blues Funeral Recordings. Thank you for reading and please check out this amazing band if you haven’t already. I am really excited to hear more from them and I will continue listening to these awesome records in the meantime.
*** UPDATE *** A few days ago, it was just announced that Kal-El’s return will be happening with a new album called Astral Voyager Vol.1, which will be released on May 16th 2025. It will be released on both labels, Majestic Mountain Records and Blues Funeral Recordings. The new single and video “B.T.D.S.C.” is now available! This is fantastic news!!
