01. Philosopher [feat. Mikael Åkerfeldt]
02. Portal I
03. Days Go By
04. Portal II
05. Here You Come Again
06. Current
07. Give And Take
08. Portal III
09. Crossroads
10. Alone
11. Portal IV
12. Freedom
13. Riot
14. Electrified
15. Portal V
16. My Aurora
17. This Road

We're all going on a summer holiday.

I may not know much about the vintage, but as a Brit, I know a lot about caravan holidays, so I feel qualified to pass judgement on this Icelandic group's sixth effort. While psychedelic-infused blues rock hasn't been considered a new thing since the 1970s, that doesn't mean the genre has nothing to offer; Icelandic group The Vintage Caravan have long refined themselves a compelling take on the genre, one that crystallises on Portals to produce one of the standout rock albums of 2025.

At first glance, Portals appears to be the band's most ambitious effort to date, with a surprising 17 tracks on offer clocking in just shy of an hour. Thankfully, the band manage to back up this ambition with quality, ensuring that listeners aren't left with moments where the temptation to hit skip becomes overwhelming. Offering listeners a gauntlet of blues, prog, psychedelic and acoustic rock, Portals is an easy album to hit play on and lose yourself in.

The Icelandic trio are on top form across Portals, offering listeners top-quality performances across a spectrum of sounds; from the mellow acoustics of "My Aurora", through the bounce of "Freedom" and all the way to the guitar heroics of "Give And Take"; The Vintage Caravan deliver this wide range of approaches to a high standard on Portals. While it would be easy to focus on Óskar Logi Ágústsson's efforts as the factor that separates The Vintage Caravan from their peers, as his emotive vocals and guitar heroics are front and centre for much of the time, the contributions of Stefán Ari Stefánsson shouldn't be overlooked; his style, rooted deeply in the blues of the 1970s, offers a dynamic that adds a lot to tracks like "Riot" and "Days Go By".

The diversity of sound on Portals is exemplified in that many of its best moments sound so different to each other, be it the upbeat rock of "Here You Come Again", the prog-infused "Current" or the sing-along blues of "Alone", yet they all slot in together naturally side by side with each other.

As is often the case with long albums, there are periods that don't hit the same heights as the rest of the album, and in this regard Portals is no different. While the end of the album is by no means bad, the peaks of Portals have come and gone by the time "Riot" kicks in, leaving the album to end on a weaker (but by no means weak) foot. Although I wouldn't remove any tracks, shuffling the track order (or, just taking a gamble and sticking the album on shuffle) would perhaps be something that would benefit the listening experience overall.

It is likely that I may not be able to convince you to go on a caravan holiday anytime soon, but I hopefully made the case for Portals to be the soundtrack of whatever Trip you may have in the near future.

Performance:	9
Songwriting:	8
Originality:	5
Production:	9