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.
I’ve been silent for a while, mainly due to incredible amount of work and preparations occurring behind the scenes, one of which was finishing the work of a long term research project I have been working on for the past couple of years to obtain my Doctorate degree.
This, however wasn’t the only thing happening, and I think now is the right time to share with you the news of the major project that I’ll be launching within the upcoming weeks and months. It will go under the title Ruminations on Darkblue and will be an expansive half-literary, half-visual project, that will have to do with the extension of the ideas and plots that are encoded in Darkblue album. It will include the visuals and words by Jess Telmatt, who did some of the visuals for Darkblue booklet, Rachel Bauer and myself.
The reasoning of doing this lies within the nature of what Transport Aerian has become with the release of Darkblue. This album is more of the literary exercise wrapped up in music. It is intentionally more of a synthetic sort of thing, its more than purely an album. The idea, the meaning, and the conception of Darkblue are by far more important than just is musical form.
For this very reason, I will move forward with this project in which I’ll be giving a lot of facts, ideas, visuals and thoughts regarding every aspect of Darkblue to carry out its purpose in the form of half literary and half music project. In the incoming weeks I will start with considerations on the piece ‘Black’ and the first set of words and visuals.
The project will be available on my official website www.transport-aerian.com, so you are most welcome to follow and share it with your friends and those who you think will appreciate this sort of artistry. Ruminations will consist of a several chapters, with every chapter to include a music track and a certain set of visuals. The literary part of the concepts, ideas and background will be explained. I promise it to be quite curious from both the artistic and voyeuristic points of view, as all this is quite personal!
Besides this project that I’m preparing, I’m also working on the live set and tying to put the live lineup together, I am also involved in a various side projects, some of which I might reveal in the upcoming weeks! Keep in touch and keep the (progressive) music flowing!
During the NORTHERN HEMISPHERE’S WINTER, the latest release from the INVINCIBLE, MIA MUZE, was the way for Music Fans to ESCAPE FROM THAT TURBULENT SEASON, who INDULGED in the BEAUTY of her MUSIC & EXPERTISE, which put the MAJOR RECORDING ARTIST to shame, whom appeared as AMATEURS, compared to the EXOTIC & INNOVATIVE STYLES as depicted from the songs of ” TWISTED WINTER. ”
READ HER STORY:
” A nature nerd and extreme hiker – I have lived by the bay, ocean, amongst the mountains, urban and desert. These themes protrude my music. The half Japanese inspires my hobby photographer – I love art, design and multimedia. A songwriter, first and foremost – wordsmithing, etymology and deliverance of language are my sociology. A true independent, I’ve lead many teams – I love to craft, collaborate and innovate. Acoustic treatment and gear make any space my studio and home. Recording is my jam. As a kid, I multitracked acapellas on cassettes. These qualities mutated into being a singer and producer – I can sing any style. My half Latin side lends to the my love of beats and creation. As an engineer, I love samples and the juxtaposition of sound. I watch science fiction and grew up on rock, pop and wide cinema soundtracks. I seldom follow the status quo and am all about the original. I like a good vibe, some canna and tequila. ”
I’ve been a rock and metal fan for years, starting somewhere in my teens, so the early 1980s. Over time, I went from being a NWOBHM fan, to more progressive rock and metal, like Rush, Marillion, and then Dream Theater, Shadow Gallery and Ayreon. After a hiatus of 10 years (listening mainly to mainstream radio), I rediscovered progressive music around 2006, when I joined ProgArchives – where I became an admin a year after.
On ProgArchives, I learned two things. First I discovered a lot more bands from the 70s that I had heard of but never sampled (Gong, Caravan, Van Der Graaf Generator, Gentle Giant, early Genesis even). Then I set up some activities to support what we called ‘unsigned bands’ – a forum section and a MySpace page. Through that, I got to know (and introduce) a hoard of new, young bands that played great music. Due to a busy work life, I had to let go of this, reluctantly. However, in a period of my life where I’m finding a new balance, I picked up on reviewing albums again – and supporting new and lesser know acts by publishing reviews on their albums and sharing news about them on social media. This way, I got in touch with Corvus Stone, Progeland, Murky Red, Unreal City, Fractal Mirror, Silhouette, This Raging Silence, Elephants of Scotland and many more – in only a six month period.
Inspired by this, and encouraged by graphic artist Sonia Mota of Corvus Stone (who created the beautiful logo for my site and t-shirts as well), I initiated what I call Angelo’s Rock Orphanage – a place where the new, and unknown bands operating in the shadows get more attention. I have no idea where it will go, and how it will grow, but I’ll be around for a while now – music has once again become an important part of my life.
I’ll be posting small updates here every now and then – while checking the news on all artists who are members here. The main posts and reviews however will be published on my own site:
Anekdoten| Until All The Ghosts Are Gone Release Year: 2015 Label: Virta, Kscope, Stickman, Disk Union Genre: Progressive Rock, Experimental, Psychedelic Country: Sweden
Band Members: Nicklas Barker – Vocals, Guitar, Mellotron, Keyboards
Anna Sofi Dahlberg – Vocals, Mellotron, Violin, Synthesizers
Jan Erik Liljeström – Vocals, Bass Guitar
Peter Nordins – Drums, Percussion
With Special Guests: Per Wiberg (ex-Opeth) – Keyboards
Theo Travis (King Crimson, Steven Wilson) – Saxophone, Flute
Marty Wilson-Piper (The Church, All About Eve) – Guitars
This album has a little of both past and present elements in it. Picture the legends of the past such as Van Der Graaf Generator, Renaissance, King Crimson with the modern styles of Opeth, PorcupineTree, Steven Wilson Solo. That is what Until All The Ghosts Are Gone carries throughout it. I believe Anekdoten at times were born 500 years too late given their atmospheric medevil sound on this particular outing. However that is not a bad thing and can serve as a education to any progressive listener or aspiring musician. The keyboards and mellotron definitely serve as the backbone of the composition. This gives this album a sweet consistency to the listener to be immersed in this journey. The rhythm section between drums and bass are as tight as any album I have heard in a while. Normally I would do a track by track breakdown on a review however Until All The Ghosts Are Gone has such a fluid flow to it that doing so would defeat the purpose of the journey this album beholds.
I very rarely give these out and do not do so lightly, however Anekdoten’s Until All The Ghosts AreGone gets a 5/5 due to its very original elements.
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