Releasedate:   03-10-2025
Label: Despotz Records

Swedish Heavy Stoner Metal band Sparzanza is back almost after a decade with their 9th album to date; “From Dust to Darkness”. I have nearly forgotten about them if it was not for this record hitting my email notifications to my pleasant surprise. They were on my heavy rotation back in 2013 and 2014. I remember loving the uniqueness of it all even though it’s not an unfamiliar genre to me.

They seem to have reinforced their sound in an impressive way but surely not changed genres completely or anything. I guess over the years they have accumulated enough inspiration and it shows in their sound and the awesome tracks.

This record has no fillers, that I can say without hesitation. It’s the Sparzanza I fell in love a decade ago, it’s almost as if no time had passed since their “Announcing The End” record, and rather than in a weary fashion the band marched on in a very contemporary and novel sounding way in my humble opinion.

Moving on to the tracks, the 1st hit single Fear The Night is catchy as hell and defines what Sparzanza has always been in my eyes as a band which is big choruses with melodic heavy stoner riffs. What a cool way to kick off the album. Bloodborne has so much of “Kill’Em All” vibes up until the chorus, and it’s quite layered. The verses of Bad Motherfucker sound like from your favorite stoner song that has not existed up until now. The chorus does not disappoint again in catchiness. I love the vocals throughout the record. Fredrik has such a distinct, brutal but melodic voice like he was born to sing these songs.

As for my favorite track of the album; Twitch of The Death Nerve is the perfect Sparzanza song that I love with the intensity and the doomy elements with the Sabbath riffs, reflecting the heavy emotional burden we carry as human beings. The strings near the outro are quite impressive. Overall, the album just proves to be just for the Sparzanza fans and it will not disappoint them in any way.

Sparzanza is popular especially in the Nordic area, but they definitely deserve more recognition in the US market for being such a prominent stoner rock band. They have been touring in Sweden and Finland since last month, count yourself lucky if you are able to catch them somewhere on the road.

Line up:

Calle Johannesson – Guitar
Anders Åberg – Drums
Johan Carlsson – Bass
Fredrik Weileby – Vocals
Magnus Eronen – Guitar

Links:

Official: https://www.sparzanza.com/
Bandcamp: https://sparzanza.bandcamp.com/album/from-dust-to-darkness