Neronia is excited 2 announce the release of their 4th CD called NERO that will be available from Sat, Dec 12th, 2015.
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Copied from my blog: Murky Red – No Pocus without Hocus
Sometimes, it’s hard to get into an album – as a listener, or as a reviewer. And in other cases, it just happens naturally. The latter is the case with Murky Red‘s new album No Pocus without Hocus, and album that I could listen to since 4 weeks before the official release.
Album cover – click for hi-res image
With this album, it is clear that Murky Red have grown since their debut – or maybe they just stopped being shy and are no longer holding back on what they have been wanting to play all the time. Of course, they still mix rock and blues, more elements have been added now. Heavy guitar riffs, mixed with melodic guitar solos, a well educated organ, and some nicely mixed in percussion are used to build rock walls, which are interleaved with psychedelic sound trips (no, not soundscapes), surrounding the hypnotising voice of Stef Flaming.
All of that is immediately part of the opening track Pixelated Friends, a slow, dragging piece that only speeds up briefly in the end. The topic of the track is clear from the single line “I smoked all my hashtags with some pixelated friends“, which is also a good indication of the looseness and humour the band puts in their lyrics.
This is no different in Stoned And Horny, which talks of similar experiences, but musically is almost a tribute to The Doors, Gong and maybe even some Deep Purple. After a rather rocking, shining opening (the horny part), it moves to the slow, spacey stoned part before exploding again – as if the Unknown Soldier was mixed with The End, after adding bits of Mule. Served in a tea cup… and followed by the indeed hypnotising, Sweet Dark Hypnosis.
It’s not all humour though, Murky Red does have a serious side, which shows in the care taken to compose their music, but also in the lyrics of She’s Crying Diamondsand Collateral Damage.
The first talks of a woman who seems to have lost a life of luxury, ending in the gutter, where ‘the people in the street no longer care‘. This is accompanied by a piano, dark guitar riffs and percussion that was described by a listener on my ISCK Rock Radio show as if ‘cannibals are playing the drums while making dinner’. With an instrumental midsection that features alternating guitar and keyboard leads around that same rhythm pattern, this is best described as a sad song transformed to psychedelic rock.
The second of these two, Collateral Damage, is an 6.5 minute musical description of the madness of war. Starting out rather melodically, with some guitar parts played by guest musician and producer Colin Tench, it builds up a darker and gloomier mood, with varying guitar parts, war sounds in the background, and a short eight line verse that was written already in in 1993, and that perfectly summarises the madness this is track about:
“Hear the soldiers sing
Songs of hope
And songs of suffering
Hear the children cry
See the widow’s tears
Fill her near-dead eyes
This is the pain of a nation
In times of war”
The rockier, more straight forward side of Murky Red shows on tracks like Nothing Can Go Wrong, the story of Delilah, which is centered around a heavy, fuzzed guitar mixed with an organ. The instrumental part contains a funny, jumpy bass line that made me skip back a few times. This continues into A Wooden Groove, which is 70s space rock transferred to the 21st century. The lyrics of this one are written by one who smoked too many pine needles, first singing of a tree, then explaining that the remainder of the song (a good 3 minutes) are indeed instrumental.
The last third of the album consists of four quite different tracks, starting with Bad Wolf of the Pack, which opens with a slow Gilmouresque guitar – returning to the old Murky Red adagium that they mix Pink Floyd and blues. Slow vocals, a clean guitar and simple but very fitting percussion (bongos) do the trick here. Not a complicated song at first listen, but I bet every cover band would get it wrong.
Wild Flower has vocals that are carried by keys, drums and bass – and almost no guitar – while the instrumentals feature once again some Flodyian guitar sounds. Over time the track moves away from that sound, without loosing coherence and power. This track was the first single from the album, about 6 months ago, and made a promise that came true now.
Then with Mermaids, the band takes us to the movies, with a piano opening that seems to announce the exciting opening scene of a motion picture that has no Disney label on it. The structure of this song is build around guitar riffs, with the keys playing counter melodies and the bass seems to sing its own melody underneath. I wrote in my review notes that this is music a group of hippies could play on the beach – provided there was power available to plug in their amps. There is no beach in the town of Helecine, where the band comes from, but there is a corn field, so I guess this was recorded there instead.
To close off the album, Elena is nothing short of an ode to Focus, with a guitar and organ driven beginning and end, soldered together by a slow, instrumental mid section where an acoustic guitar plays a melody resembling vaguely Für Elise, before the organ joins in to build a psychedelic sound trip. A sound trip to the ancient city of Troy, that burns for Elena’s love. A fitting end to a nice musical journey.
This album is a worthy successor to 2012’s Time Doesn’t Matter, and it shows a more out-of-the-trodden-path Murky Red. Brilliant guitar work, great organ and bass work, non standard drumming and percussion and a nice mix of humorous and serious lyrics make for a nice musical journey. The production by Colin Tench is on par with that of his own band’s Corvus Stone Unscrewed, to complete the picture. No lack of dynamics here (overall Dynamic Range of 12). To top it off, the beautiful, fitting art work by Stef Flaming himself makes the main character Maurice LeMurk into the new band mascotte.
This is not a new master piece, and it wasn’t intended to be. Like any human product, it has its flaws, and most of these I expect to be subjective to the listener. I enjoyed it, the past few weeks and will enjoy it more I’m sure. A big step forward for the band, and a big step away from the more straight forward rock on their debut album. Highly recommended.
DREAMS HAVE TRANSITIONED INTO REALITY, AFTER ALL! :)))
And now, a few words by MARK TRUEAK:
“ The Fraternity grows, enter JOANNA ST CLAIRE. “
“ While in LA, I was fortunate enough to meet and share a wonderful dinner with an amazing lady, Singer, Songwriter, and Producer, Joanna St Claire and her fantastic husband, Donny Ward. “.
“ We met here on Facebook, through the VOICES OF BABYLON project, and soon as I heard her voice, I thought here’s a great opportunity to sing a duet. “
“ So we plan to work on one of her songs and one that I have recently written with OWEN LELEAN ( Producer ) called ‘ The Changes we Make. ’ “
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE ILLUSTRIOUS LIFE OF JOANNA ST CLAIRE, CLICK ONTO THIS YOUTUBE LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSeBBFOQGU4
TO LISTEN TO HER ANGELIC VOCALS, PLAY THIS YOUTUBE VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gSsbh8e_-g
ALL ARTWORK BY: ED UNITSKY
STAY TUNE, FOR MORE UPDATES!!!!!
THE WAIT IS OVER! On October 23, we released The Digital Version of our NEW ALBUM! Go Listen to “And From The Sky We Fall”…NOW!
You can listen to the album on Bancamp, Spotify, YouTube, Deezer, and so much more! You can purchase the album on iTunes, Bandcamp and Google Play.
CHECK IT OUT!!
https://alyeus.bandcamp.com/album/and-from-the-sky-we-fall
Pagans Mind | Full Circle: Live At Center Stage
Label: SPV/Steamhammer
Release Year: 2015
Country : Norway
Genre: Progressive Power Metal
Band Members
Nils K. Rue − Vocals
Jørn Viggo Lofstad − Guitar
Steinar Krokmo − Bass
Stian Kristoffersen − Drums
Ronny Tegner − Keyboard
Guest Musician Vocalist
Michael Eriksen –Walk Away & Eyes Of Fire– Circus Maximus
Contact Links
Pagan’s Mind Official Facebook
Pagan’s Mind Official Youtube Channel
I have been reviewing albums and writing my analysis on them since 1997. That is 18 years now. Up until now it has only been studio albums or projects of ‘original material’. I have never really analyzed live albums. I have refrained form this for two reasons. One being at one point the songs in a live album appeared on a studio album of ‘original material’ thus they were already scrutinized on the merits. Second reason being is I see live albums as a celebration of a bands progress and the fact the play live to celebrate achievement with the respective fan bases.
Pagan’s Mind Full Circle: Live At Center Stage is my very first exception to this rule. Ever since 2000 to 2001 since I first heard about Norway’s Pagan’s Mind, something about the band has refused to leave me alone. It would eventually take 2005’s Enigmatic Calling for me to wake up to the realization that this band not only kicks ass but they are up there with the Dream Theater’s , Vanden Plas’ Fates Warning’s, Crimson Glory’s and Symphony X’s, Evergrey’s and Circus Maximus as one of the standard carriers of progressive power metal. Pagan’s Mind are up there with all those bands and somebody has to now explain why they are there. I will attempt to do so here.
Pagan’s Mind Full Circle: Live At Center Stage is broken eloquently and appropriately in two different sets. The first and opening set is the entire 2002’s Celestial Entrance in its entirety live. The second set is various tracks that span their entire career thus far. This is all done at Prog/Power USA Metal Festival. For a band to do a live document like that at one of the major festivals that serve as a major medium for their respective genre is a statement unto itself. Especially since people from all over the world converge for Prog/Power USA every year. Pagan’s Mind Full Circle: Live At Center Stage is also their second official live document following in the footsteps of 2009’s Live Equation album they did in Oslo Norway.
Pagan’s Mind Full Circle: Live At Center Stage
Set #1 Celestial Entrance is just as explosive live as it is on album. Pagan’s Mind have a very uncanny ability to make their music sound just as polished live as on album. The connection to the crowd is immediate creating a intimate atmosphere for the evening. Several times Nil’s Rue – Vocals mentions the Prog/Power festival, maintaining a high quality connection. This is very transparent and comes through to the listener that was not even their during the live recording. The bands instrumental section is clean and on time with its various progressions and odd time signatures. There is some killer backing vocals that come in at the right time spot on. This is one of the few live progressive metal documents where I hear the band getting stronger in sound over time instead of diminishing in sound. The final track The Prophecy Of Plediades sounds just as tight and if not tighter than even the opening tracks of Approaching and Through Osiris’s Eyes. By now the band has that crowd right where they want them.
Set #2 Career Spanning 80 minutes is another powerful set in of itself. The band has also matured as New World Order carries a strong Black Sabbath doom metal vibe within the progressive power metal structure of the band’s signature sound. I like the power rhythmic progression at about the 5:00 mark of New World Order. They waste little time in the way of chit chatting to the crowd and really stay on point going from track to track. Intermission through Hallo Spaceboy is a non stop assault of various time signatures and well performed songs through power progressions. When we arrive at Full Circle which is a 15:57 instrumental only track. Full Circle allows the fan and listener both new and old to see the instrumental side to Pagan’s Mind. Full Circle is also a much needed break on the vocals. The band has one serious stronger finishes on a live document I ever heard.
Over the past 20 years we have had live albums such as Dream Theater’s Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From A Memory, Symphony X’s Live On The Edge Of Forever, Vanden Plas’ Spirit Of Live, Pain Of Salvation’s BE and Kamelots One Cold Winter’s Night, and now Pagan’s Mind Full Circle: Live From Center Stage ranks right up there among the elite of live progressive power metal album documents. Whether you are a fan from day one or a newer fan you can see the maturing and growth of a quality metal band. I see Pagan’s Mind Full Circle: Live From Center Stage as one of those albums many will look back another 20 years from now and still be talking about it as if it were just freshly released today. This will last the test of time like the rest of the Pagan’s Mind library has. This gets a 5/5.
Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving | Yield To Despair
Label: Bird’s Robe Records
Release Year: 2015
Country: Australia; Perth
Genre: Post Progressive Post Rock/Noise/Jazz/Gloom
Band Members
Ron Pollard – Piano, Synth
BeHn Stacy – Drums, Noise
Andrew McDonald – Guitar
Luke Pollard – Bass, Samples
Contact Links
Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving Official Website
Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving Official Facebook Page
Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving Official Youtube Channel
Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving Official Bandcamp Shop
It seems once every 10 to 15 years there is a band that totally takes you for a serious mind fuck. In the last 25 years bands like TOOL and Gojira in the Post Rock/Metal world and Oresund Space Collective and Pain Of Salvation in the Psychedelic and Progressive Rock realm have been those bands for me. Just when I thought the strange and eclectic of strange and eclectic comes Perth, Australia’s own Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving.
Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving release Yield Of Despair is a melodic dark abstract of what can be done with fine musicianship and intelligent brainstorms. To say this is a dark abstract is still a understatement Yield Of Despair is like a harmonic black hole that devours the listeners senses for nearly 74 minutes before releasing its melodic bombardment thus leaving you bewildered about what happened. If Stanley Kubrick ever had a abstract negative for music Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving’s Yield Of Despair would be it. I normally go in and totally breakdown a album track by track about now, however this time I will be giving my impressions of each track more so than a full breakdown analysis.
The Albanian Sleepover – Part One begins with some heavy handed fuzzy distortion often found in the doom metal ranks. The drums are totally bottomed towards depths of true despair followed eloquently by a right armed heavy distorted fuzzy bass. Even the rhythm guitar signatures sound like they were played through more a bass amp than a Marshall stack. This is a preface to the listener that their senses are about to be assaulted over the next 74 minutes.
The Albanian Sleepover – Part Two starts off just as brooding as Part One left off. This time it picks up with a far more jazz progression that leads to a more chamber style passage. Make no mistake the album is dark and continues to get darker as this one goes on. There are some deep heavy piano sections with some haunting special effects to accentuate such dark progressions. This all come together around the 5:00 mark and serve the listener with such fear. At the 8:00 mark the drums and distorted bass take this to another dimension of sheer terror before a melancholic piano is included around the 9:00 mark. Then it is a series of more post acid jazz progressions towards the end of the track.
Shaking Off Futility is probably the track that is easiest on the listeners senses. After being hammered with time signatures and brooding progressions from the first two tracks Shaking Off Futility allows the listener to finally begin to digest what has been served to them. It opens with far more gentle piano and rhythmic section passages. This track definitely serves as the bridge to the last half of the project inside the arrangement of the album. The bass and drum rhythmic portions appear to sound as if they were pumped through a foggy filter on this one. This is also the more instrumentally melodic track on Yield Of Despair.
Downbeat starts out liken that of a horror film set to music. There is a desperation appeal to the atmosphere’s on this track. The listener is not only exceptionally assaulted in both right and left channel of the hemisphere’s in the theater of the mind, they are also being hit from back to front. This one comes at you with some of the most intense sonic fury I have heard in recent years within the post progressive rock and metal communities. At the 8:00 mark the fuzzy distortion signatures get very chaotically congested as the listener is now fully engulfed in sheer sonic assaults. Downbeat gives absolutely no remorse or forgiveness. It is a solid storm of melodic bombardment all the way through. About the 12:00 mark the instrumental takes a more Shoegaze/black metal approach with serious double bass drum blast beats with off timed signatures. About the 14:00 mark the track tapers off into a more slow yet complex rhythmic dynamic. The end is almost to doom metal passages.
Yield Of Despair begins with a heavy yet dark piano passage that is almost of chamber music signatures. The piano passages give the listener a sense of mischief and intrigue before the drums come in and cradle it into a wicked distorted dimension. This track sounds like the more improvised track on the album. It is as if the band have taken elements of the previous 4 tracks and used the last title track here as a melting pot or overview of what the listener just experienced. There are several twists and turns in and out of the various signatures and progressions. Yield Of Despair is appropriately arranged in its proper sequence on the album tracking.
I will admit this was one of the most dark yet brooding sonic assaults on my senses in recent memory. Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving have taken Post Progressive Rock/Metal in a totally different dimension. I believe they are pioneers towards a new level in this genre. Yield Of Despair is exceptionally dark and terrifying at times. If you think you knew about this genre of prog think again. I give this a 4/5 of sheer guts and originality.
