The Vintage Caravan are a

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band from

Álftanes Álftanes () is the name of a town and a collection of small peninsulas in Iceland. It means ''swan peninsula''. The best known of these peninsulas extrudes from the eastern part of Reykjanes with the town of the same name in the Capital Regio ...

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

. The band was formed in 2006 by Óskar Logi Ágústsson and Guðjón Reynisson before bassist Alexander Örn Númason joined after the first

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

. As of 2021, the band have released five studio albums and are currently signed with

Napalm Records Napalm Records is an Austrian independent record label focused on heavy metal and hard rock. Originally, Napalm focused on black metal bands, such as Abigor and Summoning, and folk metal bands, such as Falkenbach and Vintersorg. The label later ...

History

In 2006, 12 year-old school friends Óskar Logi Ágústsson (guitar and vocals) and Guðjón Reynisson (drums) formed the band. Serious work only began in 2009 and within two years the band self-published their eponymous first album. In early 2012, the band signed a deal with Icelandic record label Sena ahead of work for their second album. Alexander Örn Númason joined shortly after on bass. A second album ''Voyage'' was released in 2012 initially by Sena. The band signed to

Nuclear Blast Nuclear Blast is a record label and mail order record distributor with subsidiaries in Germany, the United States and Brazil. The label was founded in 1987 by Markus Staiger in Germany. Originally releasing hardcore punk records, the label mov ...

shortly after the release of ''Voyage''. This led to a ''Expand Your Mind'' music video produced and released by the German record label. The short film shows the psychedelic 'trips' the three members experience. As of July 2015, the video reached 400,000 hits on

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

becoming the most viewed online song by the band.

re-released ''Voyage'' to a much wider audience. 2014 saw the band playing at festivals such as

Roadburn Festival Roadburn Festival is an international music festival held in Tilburg, Netherlands every April since 1999. It was set up as a spin-off from the Roadburn music blog founded by Jurgen van den Brand and Walter Hoeijmakers. Originally focused on stone ...

Wacken Open Air Wacken Open Air (, abbreviated as W:O:A) is a rock music, rock music festival, held annually since 1990 on the first weekend of August in the village of Wacken, Schleswig-Holstein, Wacken in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. Almost all styles and su ...

and

Hard Rock Hell Hard Rock Hell is a three day music festival held at Vauxhall Holiday resort, Great Yarmouth. It was previously held at Hafan y Môr Holiday Park, Pwllheli, Gwynedd, North Wales, and up until 2011 at Pontin's Holiday Village, Prestatyn, Wales ...

. In April 2015, the band announced on Facebook that drummer Guðjón Reynisson had left the band for personal reasons however still remained good friends with the remaining band members. In the same post, Stefán Ari was introduced to fans as the new drummer of the band. On 15 May 2015, ''Arrival'' was released with

as the band's third studio album. This was the first record since the recent line-up change. The band's four studio album ''Gateways'' was released in 2018. Two years later the band signed with

ahead of the release of the fifth album ''Monuments''. Much like previous albums, ''Monuments'' received mostly positive reviews, with

Loudersound ''Metal Hammer'' is a heavy metal music magazine and website founded in 1983, published in the United Kingdom by Future, with other language editions available in numerous other countries. ''Metal Hammer'' features news, reviews and long-form a ...

in particular finishing their 4 out of 5 star review with the sentence 'The Vintage Caravan just get better and better.'

Personal life

In many interviews, the band have confirmed they are good friends with fellow Nuclear Blast counterparts

Blues Pills Blues Pills are a Swedish rock band, formed in Örebro in 2011. The band has released three studio albums, two EPs, three live albums and five singles since its formation. Their latest studio album, ''Holy Moly!'', was released in August 2020 ...

. In 2014 following a tour of Europe, the band moved from

Reykjavík Reykjavík ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08' N, making it the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a po ...

Sønderborg (; german: Sonderburg ) is a Danish town in the Region of Southern Denmark. It is the main town and the administrative seat of Sønderborg Municipality (Kommune). The town has a population of 27,766 (1 January 2022),Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

so that they would be nearer to their record label at the time

Style

According to Fred Thomas of ''

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

'', the band complied within the genres of

classic rock Classic rock is a US radio format which developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, the classic rock format comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the mid 1990s, primar ...

, proto (early)

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

and

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

. Nuclear Blast however describe them as more

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

. The band themselves describes their style and sound as 'classic hard rock of the 60's and 70's with a powerful attitude and a modern twist'. The band's influences include

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968. The group comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones, and drummer John Bonham. With a heavy, guitar-driven sound, they are ci ...

Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock music, but their musical style has changed over the course of its existence. Ori ...

Mastodon A mastodon ( 'breast' + 'tooth') is any proboscidean belonging to the extinct genus ''Mammut'' (family Mammutidae). Mastodons inhabited North and Central America during the late Miocene or late Pliocene up to their extinction at the end of th ...

Rush Rush(es) may refer to: Places United States * Rush, Colorado * Rush, Kentucky * Rush, New York * Rush City, Minnesota * Rush Creek (Kishwaukee River tributary), Illinois * Rush Creek (Marin County, California), a stream * Rush Creek (Mono Cou ...

and

Cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...

. The band explain that they love "hard hitting riff fueled music".

Band members

Current members *Óskar Logi Ágústsson – guitars, lead vocals (2006–present) *Alexander Örn Númason – bass, backing vocals (2012–present) *Stefán Ari Stefánsson – drums (2015–present) Former members *Guðjón Reynisson – drums (2006–2015)

Discography

Studio albums

*''The Vintage Caravan'' (2011) (self-released) *''Voyage'' (2014) ( Sena) *''Arrival'' (2015) (

) *''Gateways'' (2018) (Nuclear Blast) *''Monuments'' (2021) (

)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vintage Caravan Icelandic rock music groups Icelandic musical trios Musical groups established in 2006 Napalm Records artists Nuclear Blast artists