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Purple Skies — A Million Years
(Apollon Records AP, 2026, CD / LP / DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2026-04-15

A Million Years Cover art

Bergen’s Purple Skies is another entry in the roll-call of modern bands that take inspiration from early Black Sabbath. When treading such a well-worn path, it takes a fair amount of skill to not just sound like a rehash or cliche. To my ears, Purple Skies manages it nicely on their debut, A Million Years. The nine tracks on the album stick to rather concise lengths, with none stretching above six minutes, and they never descend into mindless repetition. When they ride a riff, it’s heavy without being stupid, including some nice harmonic turns, and they balance the riffs with some more delicate moments. The guitar is mostly old-school rock without any flashy shredding — hey, if it was good enough for Tony Iommi, it’s good enough for these guys. The vocals are quite good, lower in register than Ozzy and often harmonized quite nicely. Lyrically, they are not inclined towards cartoonish doom, though they do lean towards the dark side of human nature, with titles like “Mr. Fear,” “Bitchcraft,” and “Worthless Men.” “Quiet Flowers” presents another side of the band, being built up from a bassline with chords on the guitar. It’s a very tasty mid-tempo rocker. Purple Skies has a sound that crosses between a number of sub-genres of heavy rock (I tend not to pay attention to these distinctions, but maybe they’re useful for context): stoner rock, space rock, classic metal. Notably absent in the mix are doom, technical, or prog metal, which is fine by me. A Million Years may not present anything really new, but it’s a fun listen, well made in every respect.

Filed under: New releases, 2026 releases

Related artist(s): Purple Skies

More info
http://purpleskies1.bandcamp.com/album/a-million-years

 

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