Review: Gazpacho – Magic 8-Ball

Style: progressive rock, art rock (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Anathema, The Pineapple Thief, Airbag, all Steven Wilson projects
Country: Norway
Release date: 31 October 2025

For a country of about five-and-a-half million, Norway punches way above its weight. From being home to literally the only current chess player anyone knows, to fostering an absurdly high proportion of the world’s best endurance athletes, and further still to holding a legendary catalog of foundational extreme metal bands, the country is synonymous with quality.¹ At The Subway, we’ve identified a little Norwegian niche that’s less familiar but still right up to the country’s high standards: moody, talented, and rather fresh underground prog rock acts. We’re talking Meer, Dim Gray, and Oak, to name a few of the most recent ones. 

Perhaps chief among Norway’s artsy, lesser-known prog exports is Gazpacho, the quirky six-piece sporting the name of Southern Spain’s cold soup.² At one time referred to as “the greatest unsigned band in the world,” the group released five albums between 2003 and 2009 before finally signing with Kscope Records in 2010, and then released another six albums between 2010 and 2020. That’s eleven albums, all solid, with three—Night, Tick Tock, and Demon—being some of the best atmospheric albums ever written, if you ask me. 

With five years having passed and a new release in our hands, what does a shake of album number twelve, Magic 8-Ball, reveal? We’ve come to expect more of that high Norwegian quality without a doubt, but after so many affirmative readings, might the odds say don’t count on it?

Almost immediately, the album’s fantastic production makes itself known. The numerous instruments and effects are balanced carefully such that each is clear and has a strong presence, yet doesn’t overpower the others. Gazpacho’s subdued, art-rock sound shimmers organically, naturally highlighting the subtle compositional dynamics. With so much of Magic 8-Ball built around Thomas Andersen’s atmospheric keys and synths, the mix pays dividends—the gentler elements aren’t lost, while each instrument’s contribution to changing the texture and developing the sound can be easily heard as passages progress. The patient—maybe too patient—build of album opener “Starling” is effective because of how beautiful it sounds; and penultimate track “Immerwahr” stands out because of the clarity with which Kristian Torp’s always-engaging bass work booms beneath and interacts with the myriad other layers. Gazpacho are masters of creating a compelling soundscape, and the production lets this skill shine. 

The band’s works are often structured around a narrative, and Magic 8-Ball is no exception. Its eight tracks set out and repeat stories rooted in ideas of fate, randomness, and inevitability; we futilely shake something for the answers we expect or desire, as some combination of our own choices and the infinite randomness of the universe dictates our fate. Jan-Henrik Ohme’s characteristically cinematic vocals align with this narrative-first approach—he can carry a tune, but storytelling is his bread and butter. Magic 8-Ball, however, leans maybe a little too far into its narrative. The vocals are almost ever-present, with a delivery that seems focused slightly more on what’s being said than on how it’s being said, and as a result, the album is missing some of the emotion and vocal dynamics of which Ohme is capable. Similarly, the instrumentation serves mostly as a canvas for the album’s stories and, while always well written and performed, offers relatively few exceptional moments. More of the band’s traditionally creative, diverse instrumental passages—such as the bouncy bridge in the middle of album centerpiece “Gingerbread Men”—would go a long way in adding intrigue and excitement to the work. 

Zooming out, Gazpacho arrange the album deftly, mixing short, quick-hitting tracks among mid-length slow-burners. One such quick hitter, “We are Strangers,” comes right after the deliberately paced opener and sees the band venture into electronica while retaining a progressive edge with the track’s odd time signatures and slightly off-kilter rhythms. However, the song’s refrain isn’t quite remarkable enough to justify the amount of repetition. Meanwhile, the three-minute title track is playful and catchy, having a jovial yet sardonic feel, but it’s not as memorable as the similarly punchy tracks littered across the band’s discography. Still, it serves as an effective enough bridge between the weightier album highlights, “Gingerbread Men” and “Immerwahr,” which both unfold gracefully and feature excellent, post-rock-like endings. Unfortunately, much of the album doesn’t provide the same level of impact as these two standout tracks. After several listens, I’d still have some trouble telling you what “Sky King” or album closer “Unrisen” sound like. Magic 8-Ball flows impeccably, but it’s tough to stay engaged throughout; the compositions are smooth and lush, but I’m left wanting more progression and higher highs. At the close of the album’s forty-six minutes, I feel satisfied but not fulfilled. 

In the end, the issue with Magic 8-Ball is one of resonance, not quality. It’s fair to chalk the album up as another successful Norwegian export, matching the high standards of Gazpacho’s discography. The record is intricate, rich, and cohesive—but it simply hits more bluntly than previous works, lacking much of the memorability, instrumental intrigue, and staying power. Nevertheless, give the album a shake and see how it answers your tastes. It may well return a more positive response.

Recommended tracks: Starling, Gingerbread Men, Immerwahr
You may also like: Jonathan Hultén, Oak, Haven of Echoes
Final verdict: 6.5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Kscope Music

Gazpacho is:
– Jan-Henrik Ohme (vocals)
– Thomas Andersen (keyboards, programming)
– Jon-Arne Vilbo (guitars)
– Mikael Krømer (violin, guitars)
– Kristian “Fido” Torp (bass)
– Robert R Johansen (drums)

1. Norwegian athletes excel in endurance-based winter sports, sure, but more surprisingly, they’ve also taken over triathlon—this year, long-course triathlon in particular, sweeping the podium at the men’s Ironman World Championship and taking the top step at the women’s event. There’s also Jakob Ingebrigtsen on the running side of things, who’s dominating middle/long-distance track in a spectacular way. As someone whose two passions are endurance sports and music, I have a strong affinity for Norway, to say the least.
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2. With respect to the name, co-founder and keyboardist Thomas Andersen explains:
   
   We are a very unlikely mixture of people really, not the average types you’d expect to see in the same band… so we thought Gazpacho, which really is the bastard of soups (meshed up vegetables served cold), was the perfect name for our group… With Gazpacho you get a surprise, something unexpected, something out of the norm, a ‘positive’ contradiction. We feel this describes our band very well. ↩︎