Half a decade passed between
the Quill's 2006 release In Triumph and their next album
Full Circle. Between those two albums, Magnus Arnar replaced Magnus Ekwall as
the Quill's lead singer;
Full Circle is Arnar's first album with the Swedish stoner rock/alternative metal band. While Ekwall was often compared to
Soundgarden's
Chris Cornell, Arnar favors a gruff vocal style along the lines of
David Coverdale (of
Deep Purple and
Whitesnake fame). Some of Ekwall's more obsessive admirers might have a hard time adjusting to a post-Ekwall edition of
the Quill, but truth be told,
Full Circle is a CD that, stylistically, pretty much picks up where In Triumph left off. Arnar rises to the occasion nicely, and his
Coverdale-isms are quite appropriate, given the fact that
Deep Purple have been influencing
the Quill for a long time.
The Quill's stoner rock/alt-metal continues to have a strong '60s and '70s influence (as in
Deep Purple,
Blue Cheer,
Led Zeppelin,
Mountain,
Jimi Hendrix, and
Black Sabbath), and their awareness of grunge and post-'80s rock (as in
Nirvana,
Soundgarden, and
Alice in Chains) remains. The arrival of Arnar hasn't caused
the Quill to significantly alter their sound; they still sound like
the Quill, favoring an approach that is aggressive yet melodic and nuanced. So anyone who is worried about
the Quill losing or obscuring their identity need not be concerned; this 2011 edition of
the Quill (Arnar, guitarist Christian Carlsson, bassist Robert Triches, and drummer Jolle Atlagic) is quite faithful to the band's history. Once you get past the fact that
the Quill have a new lead singer,
Full Circle doesn't offer a lot of surprises. But if the material is fairly predictable, it is also enjoyably solid on
the Quills' first post-Ekwall album. ~ Alex Henderson