It seems they are able to construct oasis’ and sheer paradise from out of nothing these days in the Dubai and Abu Dubai in the United Arab Emerites. Even with all the war and terrorism coverage western civilaization receive’s the UAE seems to be a peaceful area where commerce and creativity can flourish out of the turbulent desert sands. This includes the progressive metal band Anuryzm.
Not since the Tunisian powerhouse Myrath have I been this impressed with a progressive metal band from the middle east. Their compositions seem to have so many hooks rendering the listener a audio pin cushion. Although they list the bands that influenced them as Pantera, Symphony X,Megadeth, Dream Theater, Opeth, they are so much more than these. You certainly hear their influences, yet Anuryzm do it in their own unique style. To go on record here, they are one of the few progressive metal acts since Pain of Salvation that you can not typecast nor pigeonhole into anyone sub genre in the progressive metal scene.
First they do something really odd and begin the album with a slow eccentric track that can be misconstrued as a power ballad with Mineral. This track has a beautiful way to open up the album and allow for the listener to get comfortable with their own audio experience. Soon after Mineral, they rip right into Full Agonist.
Full Agonist rips into a perfect rhythmic machine between the bass and drums. Then a full all out guitar shred fest joins into the intro. This track reminds of many of the riffs heard on Symphony X’sOdyssey album. It especially echoes shades of Wicked and King of Terrors . Just when the vocal hooks you that way soon comes a full on grunt that beckons Opeth’s Deliverance. Full Agonist is a little taste of what is in store for the duration of the album.
Humanoid opens up and reminds me of Death Angel’s Ultra Violence album meets Pantera’sVulgar Display Of Power . It contains the the thrash metal style of Ultra Violence with a left hook of the vocals from Vulgar Display Of Power. You can truly see the depth and reach of Nadeem Bibby’s vocal range.
Depolarized starts with a beautiful semi acoustic introduction. It then proceeds to pick up with a really heavy handed bass and double kick drum passage done quite effectively by the combination of Rany Battikh – Bass & Imad Dahleh – Drums as a rhythmic collective. Depolarized also contains voice over spoken word portions that remind me of most Dream Theater albums over the course of the last 30 years.
The Challenger has probably the most serious heavy handed intro, of all the tracks on the album. The immediate vocal harmonies in the intro remind me of Judas Preist’s Living After Midnight. John Bakhos – Guitars nails it on this with serious interchangeable time signatures going in and out of 4/4 rhythms to finger tapping shred work that reminds me of early Steve Hackette riffs in the prog era of Genesis.
Oceans Apart paints a beautiful acoustic bridge as it is at the half way point on the album. It is also the only instrumental on the album. Jay Jahed – Synth puts on a keyboard clinic on Oceans Apart giving the listener a beautiful yet subtle atmosphere.
All Is Not For All the title track serves as the utility track. With a killer power opening of growl vocals on top of a progressive thrash passage, All Is Not For All most definitely allows you to hear the band as a collective in the whole of their individual parts and instruments. Great time signatures combined with beauty atmospheric harmonies on the ivory keyboards.
199x starts out with a thunderous intro before the guitars fall within the background. 199x is one of those beastly tracks with big thunderous rhythm sections and actual shredding. This also has a wicked background distorted fuzzy vibe on the keyboards with something that seems like a lost art nowadays. That lost art being a actual guitar solo. This track also contains elements of Opeth’s last two albums Heritage and Pale Communion crossed with vocal elements of Hansi Kusch of BlindGuardian.
Impermanence begins with a eerie passage on the keyboards before hitting the clutch and transmission time signature wise with a galloping Iron Maiden type of progression. Impermanence is relentless with the band firing its full and true arsenal of talent. The growl vocals have elements that remind me of Amon Amarth mixed with Symphony X and a little of Seiges Even with the instrumental portions.
Perispirit contains a wonderful semi acoustical opening with warm vocal melodies. Soon after the instrumental section hooks you in with every section and second. Then the vocals are as if taking the leash of a beast. The vocals going in and out between growls that are damn near black metal to cleaner more conventional vocals. As far as the arrangement of tracks is concerned, Perispirit is could not be a more perfect track to close out this masterpiece.
Listening to this All Is Not For All was my introduction to Anuryzm . It was a damn good and solid introduction. It makes you hunger and thirst for more. All Is Not For All has a wonderful vibe about it where you are now in anticipation to hear it in a live setting. Trust me I am not kissing anyones ass here. I am giving this a 5/5 for the skillful mastery and the overall arrangement of the tracks as they lay on the album.
After a lengthy absence Zone Six have returned with Love Monster. Zone Six are part of a community of bands that ‘play it on the fly’ meaning improvised. Progressive Psychedelic Improvised music is prog rock’s best kept secret. What do I mean by ‘improvised’ ? A band basically gets together and has a jam session where they just play. This style of prog rock requires a lot of trust. Typically the bands are not sitting at a easel with any or very little staff paper writing notes like most bands would. This requires a lot more trust among band members as to where to follow one time signature or passage to another. Trust to also follow the lead with your instrument and when to hang back.
For the better part of 18 years Zone Six have been among one of the pioneers of this style of free form jam band improvised progressive rock. They are right up there sharing the top of the ladder with bands like Oresund Space Collective, Tribe of Cro, Hydria Spacefolk to name a few.
Love Monster may be only be 4 tracks long, however it is still a masterpiece. The keyboards are not only keyboards, they serve as modern day synth’s to retro mellotron and hammond organs. The keyboards are like a second backbone along with the drums. The title track Love Monster opens with a wicked fuzzy bass and deep bass drums that appear to be detuned on purpose to give it an old school retro FM radio experience.
The Insight the second track on the album begins with a real trippy effect. The synth is as if they took a old quadraphonic recording and remastered it on 5.1 surround sound without losing the old school quadraphonic effect. This is such a deep rhythmic track it gives you the impression that even the guitar is played through a bass amp.
By time you get to the third track Acidic it is as the title sounds. It sounds like a complete LSD trip with synths rotating in one hemisphere of the brain in your headset while the deep rhythmic section of the fuzzy bass and drums are going the other way round the other half hemisphere in your headset. Needless to say the band achieves 20 minutes of fury and sound in only under 9 minutes on Acidic
By time you get to the fourth and final track Cosmogyal you get a overview of some elements you encountered in the first three tracks. You get the trippy atmospheric synths, deep detuned psychedelic guitars and a tightly lock step and toe rhythm section between the fuzzy bass and drums. The band also packages wicked 70’s style time signatures with long solos and deep atmospheric effects.
As much as I enjoyed the trip or journey on this album I wish it had been a little longer. It is more of a EP than LP. That is why I can only give it a 4/5.
Label : Immrama Records Release Year : 2015 Country : United Kingdom Genre : Progressive/Symphonic/Celtic /Metal
Band Members Haley Griffiths – Lead Vocals Enrico Pinna- Lead Guitar/Vocals Jimmy Pallagrosi –Drums Ian Jones –Bass/Keyboards/Guitars Cagri Tozluoglu – Keyboards
Over the last 50 years we have seen our share of female fronted bands in pop, metal, and other genres of music as a whole. However female fronted bands in straight up progressive rock are scarce and rare. When we think of women in progesssive rock we remember the pioneers of Renate Knaupf Amon Duul ii , Annie Halsam The Renaissance even Psychadelia’s first ever Diva Grace Slick Jefferson Airplane/Starship . Between 2000- 2015 their seems to be a resurgence of women returning to the progressive rock not just metal. The fabulous talents that come to mind to name a few are Heather Findley ex-MostlyAutumn/Ayreon/Solo, Christina Booth Magenta , Judith Rijnveld of Kingfisher Sky even LanaLane. This crop of women are our new Peter Gabriels, Phil Collins, Jon Andersons and Jon Wetton. Walking a razors edge and fine line between progressive rock to hard rock, women and their bands still develop the same complexed time signatures and epics and Genesis, Yes, King Crimson, etc . Karnataka’s Hayley Griffiths certainly has gracefully walked into this pantheon of talent and creativity. Accompanying Haley is a band that I feel are one third Kansas, another third IONA, and a final third of Mostly Autumn. Founded by bassist and multi instrumentalist Ian Jones back in 1997, the band is rounded out with the talents and likes of Enrico Pinna (Guitars, vocals) Cagri Tozluoglu (Keyboards) Jimmy Pallagrosi , Drums, Karnataka mixes a blend of world and celtic influences with hard and progressive rock for a distinctive sound.
Road To Cairo This track is one of the most stand out tracks on the album. With a wicked time signature backed by an Arabic scale, the band takes us on a journey much like one Ritchie Blackmore did 40 years early in Rainbow with Stargazer.
Because Of You This is probably the most radio friendly track on the album. Opening with a a lush piano intro and soon progressing within seconds to a symphonic cacaphony of bliss. Lush strings interwining like a symphonic web. It serves as a prog rock ballad with a retrospective message. The
Poison Ivy A song of pain and agony. Haley’s voice gets really aggressive on this track. It is definitely sung with conviction with the band in the background as a perfect complament on key spot on. This one opens up with a sweet symphonic intro. There is a choir effect in and out at many times that with the keyboards carries this track.
Forbidden Dreams Opens up with a haunting piano line and soon becomes enhanced with cymbals and light percussive elements. This is one of the more emotional tracks on the album both instrumenatally and lyrically. It is written with such great emotion it is as if one of the band members had a personal experience that inspired Forbidden Dreams.
Borderline One of the darker and heavier tracks on Secrets Of Angels, this begins with a heavy darker and brooding intro before going to a straight away progressive hard rock composition yet with angelic vocals for a haunting and emotional listening experience.
Fairytale Lies Fairytale Lies is definitely the most personal introspective track on the album. It is one of those tracks that if it were a video Haley would be sitting at a piano with the rest of that band around her. The message is timeless to anyone who had their hopes set on a particular thing that never came to fruition.
Feels Like Home Serene symphonic and poetic justice gives way to a upbeat encouraging track. At the 2:00 mark kicks into a straight up rock track with the heavier guitar taking over for the softer piano intro. A track of coming home and the love that exists when you do. The emotional guitar solo serves as a wonderful bridge towards the end. Beautiful vocal backing tracks ovedubbed just sweeten the pot on this one.
Secrets Of Angels The title track of the album. The intro has a very heavy celtic old world vibe. On top of Haley’s beautiful voice it can be easy to confuse it with a Celtic Woman soundtrack. Karnataka have certainly excuted all fascets of Haley’s voice with a strong lead vocal mixed with wonderful backing overdubs. At about the 4:00 mark it takes off like a beautiful film score with the drums, bass and guitars all coming on in union preapring you for this 20:04 epic journey. The rest of this track goes in from time celtic old world time signatures fashioned by Mostly Autumn crossed with Magenta and IONA with different choral down towns and explosive celtic rock jams. This will most definitely find its place as a staple in live setlists. At the end of the day I give this album 4/5.
Label : Universal Music Group Release : 2015 Country : Germany Genre : Progressive/Symphonic Metal
Band Members Jennifer Haben – Lead Vocals Nils Lesser – Lead Guitar Christopher Hummels – Rhythm Guitar / Backup Vocals Tobias Derer – Drums Erwin Schmidt – Bass Michael Hauser – Keyboards
Many metal female vocalists in the past 25 years would most likely tell you that Doro Pesch was one of the main primary influences. Cristina Scabbia Lacuna Coil , Simone Simons Epica, Floor Jansen (ex-After Forever) now Nightwish and a few others. Many have positioned themselves to be Doro’s heir apparent. Now up comes Beyond The Black’s Jennifer Haben from Doro’s native Germany itself.
Beyond The Black are like if Doro Pesch were backed by band in the vein of Dream Theater or Symphony X with a mix of the Beauty & Beast metal sound that bands like Theater Of Tragedy, After Forever , early Within Temptation and Epica all pioneered in the 1990’s and early 2000’s . Listening to this album was like listening to a high quality film score set to symphonic metal. Neal Lesser and Christopher Hummels remind me of a fresh young guitar duo of Iron Maiden’s Dave Murray and Adrian Smith. The thunderous rhythm section of Tobias Derer, Drums, Erwin Schmidt ,Bass certainly can hold their own with rhythm sections of Nightwish and Within Temptation.
Normally I would do a track by track breakdown in most of my album reviews. However this is one of the few exceptions to the rule. I do see spiritual themes in the record lyrically throughout the entire album. Beyond The Black remind this 43 year old of a very hungry Warlock about 30 years ago. Jennifer Haben’s vocals really set Songs Of Love And Death on a emotionally charged and positive direction rarely seen in today’s progressive symphonic metal scene. This is certainly one of the more powerful debuts I have heard in 35 years. I give this album a 4.5/5 for a debut effort.
Band Members: David J. Smith – Drums
Kavus Torabi – Bass
James Sedwards – Guitars
Emmett Elvin – Keyboards
With only 10 official years in as Guapo, the band has managed to build a very impressive body of work in such little time. A body of work that rivals that of a band that has been together for 20 years or more. Often compared in the Zuehl genre such as Magma and Univers Zero blended with PostRock bands as Godspeed and Black Emperor, Guapo have not been shy nor timid to expand nor experiment musically on one level or another. Their latest offering Obscure Knowledge is a perfect example of that. I would be willing to even go on a limb and recognize many psychedelic elements in Obscure Knowledge as well.
Obscure Knowledge only has 3 tracks yet takes your mind on a adventure. This time I will present a track by track analysis.
Obscure Knowledge I – This one opens up with a nice blend of a hammond keyboard sound mixed with a gentle flare from the drum cymbals to create almost a suspenseful atmosphere. Around the 2:02 mark a harmonic acension of both the bass and guitar continue to build this suspense. It starts to feel like a film score vibe. At about the 4:00 mark it starts to have all the classic hallmarks and time signatures of prog’s past with Yes and King Crimson on the British side with some of the Krautrock minimalist influences of Popol Vuhl and Can. It is liken that of a improv progressive jam band session that bands like Oresund Space Collective, Hydria Spacefolk and even Buckethead are notorious for. There are also a lot of 7/8, 5/8 4/4 time signatures interweaving like a web to give the listener more of a journey inside the listening experience through the 25:39 epic.
Obscure Knowledge II – This is a rather sick track that harkens back to the days where you had to plug in on certain areas of a keyboard, mellotron or hammond to get diversity of effects. The day’s when a few simple pedels would not suffice for the desired effect. It also serves as a great bridge into Obscure Knowledge III.
Obscure Knowledge III – Opening up with a thunderous rhythm exchange between bass and drums , Obscure Knowledge III is perhaps the rhythm anchor to the album. If you are s proghead that really enjoys rhythm sections this is paradise for you. The only thing really lacking is a double bass drum. However that is compensated for with the bass serving as both a harmonic instrument and percussive instrument. With all the great points and sounds of Obscure Knowledge I can only give it a 4/5. The album could of been a little longer and perhaps had a few more time signatures and rhythmic changes.
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