It does not take long for the purity of madness to show itself on the aptly-named second full-length from Swedish heavy rockers MaidaVale. The Stockholm-based outfit issued their debut in 2016’s Tales of the Wicked West (review here), and while classicism of form remains a prevalent element throughout the new nine-track/38-minute offering — sure enough titled Madness is too Pure and set to land via The Sign Records — the band is far, far less indebted to genre, particularly blues rock, which they actively veer away from in both the alternarocking “Walk in Silence” and the electronica-beat-infused later cut “Trance, as well as others. That in itself is a noteworthy departure, and deeply encouraging as one looks to dig further into the record ahead of its release in March via The Sign Records. In contrast to the later atmospheric spaciousness and underlying thrust of “Sp?ktrom” and the drift of the subsequent six-minuter “Dark Clouds” a subtly powerful opening to Madness is too Pure hits with the immediacy of scorch in “Deadlock,” which stomps out its hook centered around the vocal performance of Mathida Roth, whose already formidable command the last time out only comes more forward as she weaves through the chorus en route to the reinforcement that arrives so soon on the following, exclamatory “Oh Hysteria!”
