Review GAUPA ‘Myriad’

Falun in Sweden is the home of a very interesting band. Their name? Gaupa. The newcomers started in 2017 and the band consists of Emma Näslund (v), Daniel Nygren (g), Erik Sävström (b), David Rosberg (g) and Jimmy Hurtig (d).

The debut album ‘Feberdröm’ was released in 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, and contains eight remarkable songs. In insider communities, the album also attracted attention, but the band remained hidden from the masses. This may now change.

Gaupa have signed a record deal with Nuclear Blast and it is the band’s second album to be released through the renowned label. ‘Myriad’ is the title of the sophomore effort and just like the first album, also this time there are eight songs that could grab a spot on the tracklist.

As far as their style is concerned, the five Swedes remain true to themselves. A colorful mixture of doom, folk and quite a lot of psychedelic rock is what Gaupa has written on the banners and what blows out of the boxes is worth listening to.

It starts with the thundering ‘Exoskeleton’. Powerful and with a strong psychedelic note, the song has the potential to captivate listeners. Still, the song doesn’t reveal all the details at first listen. You have to deal with the slightly entangled depth to grasp the entirety.

‘Moloken’ shows a successful interplay of soft and rocking loud, which gives the song a very good dynamic. More melancholic it gets with ‘Ra’ and also the soulful rocking ‘Elden’ is not a song based on happy sounds.
It gets more smashing with ‘My Sister is a Very Angry Man’, whereby the title already reveals that we are dealing with rather raging sounds here. With ‘Sömnen’ the five have a peaceful piece with Swedish lyrics on the record before ‘Mammon’ ends a quite lively long-playing record of an up-and-coming band.

‘Myriad’ has become a very good album. Gaupa have evolved without changing their basic approach. These songs have a certain depth, want to be explored and also fascinate on the first listen. If you like well-made emotional rock with feeling and depth, you should definitely check out this album.