Tesseract - One

Everyone keeps telling me, “Alex, listen to Tesseract, listen to TESSERACT!”  So I listened to their MySpace awhile back, and honestly it didn’t do too much for me, so then it was on to the next thing.

Fast forward a few months, and I am holding a copy of their debut full length, One, which is out now via our friends at Century Media.  I take back what I said earlier, because now I am literally doing backflips!  Will definitely say now that I thoroughly enjoy these progressive metallers, and that I can continue to put One in my CD player on a continual basis.  The use of dark, melodic, theatrical, and sometimes pop-like clean singing in progressive metal has been a hot trend lately.  Many of you nobs are quick to think Tesseract and Periphery, but think back 4-5 years when The Human Abstract came out with Nocturne, and you can love or hate that band (I’m kinda 50/50), but at its time it was totally different and groundbreaking.  Go back further and study up on the Swedish progressive metal movement of Katatonia and Opeth and the harmonic vocals that were used, maybe not in a pop fashion, but with a great sense of harmony.  Now rewind back to the beginning where Queensryche and Fates Warning helped define everything that is progressive metal, taking influence from Rush to Judas Priest, and making something completely brain numbing at the time.

 Anyways, the point I’m trying to make here is that I’m glad to see progressive metal keep progressing when a great band like Tesseract comes along.  The term progressive metal is almost being taken for granite now, and I can’t fucking stand it.  With every new band on the block cloning Meshuggah and calling themselves “progressive” really bugs me!  I’m not going to namedrop a million bands here, nor am I even the biggest prog nerd in the world (my Uncle worships Queensryche religiously, so I’ve had my fair share of Tate [Geoff] growing up) , but what’s obvious is obvious – I want that real, rhythmic challenging, epic, and trend setting progressive metal that defines such a niche genre.

TESSERACT’s opus One album flows perfectly from start to finish, and you’ll easily get sucked into its rich concept.

“Acceptance - Concealing Fate Part One” is my favorite song on One, and is loaded with memorable melodies, thick overtones, an undeniable clean guitar rhythm, and plenty of low end, as AcieKahney and James Monteith’s guitars gently weep.  The song buildup of “Acceptance - Concealing Fate Part One” keeps the listener engaged to the max, and is filled with a lot of down tuned drops, a gentle yet perfect-sounding clean guitar, Tomkins’ epic vocals, and even a few mosh worthy breaks.  Complexity is a norm for Tesseract as all of their progressive transitions, sudden mood swings, and time signatures come so naturally.  The ending is as epic as can be, with Tomkins is at his catchiest expressing his great harmonic vocal range.  This song will move you.

Other great songs like “Deception - Concealing Fate Part Two” and “The Impossible - Concealing Fate Part Three” have their moments.  Tomkins’ vocal prowess is quite intriguing, and there’s plenty of low end and interesting time signatures for all you djent lovers!  The clean guitar passages and the atmospherics again is what really separate these boys from the pack.  These two songs showcase more of the heavier side of Tesseract as well as introduce a tribal side of the band, and at times sounding very similar to fellow UK progressive metallers Sikth in the instrumentals.

Tesseractcan also put on quite the jam session in “Epiphany - Concealing Fate Part Five” and “Sunrise”, and show the band a tad heavier than their other songs.  In “Sunrise”, the song is brutal yet equally unique with its ambient passages, and the intro chugging reminds me of old Sevendust for some reason.  Vocally, Mr. Tomkins I swear starts to morph into Maynard James Keenan when in clean singing motion, and screaming, yeah, a little bit like Morgan Rose of Sevendust.  The percussion truly shines in “Epiphany - Concealing Fate Part Five” and talk about quite the Meshuggah jam session in that one.  You definitely hear a heavy Meshuggah influence, and if you’re a fan of the almighty Fredrik Thordendal then you’ll probably like “Epiphany -  Concealing Fate Part Five”.  Tight and heavily syncopated riff work at its best on One.

One is easily one of my favorite progressive metal releases of the year.  Overall, Tesseract does a great job enveloping the listener, and taking them into their own world.  I’m curious to see what Tesseract has up their sleeve next, because a band as creative as this has always got something neat in the works.  Yes, I’ll say it right now: I think Tesseract is better than Periphery.  Anyways, would anyone like to come to the 4th dimension with me??


-- Alex Gilbert

Buy here mp3: One [+Digital Booklet]
Buy here CD:One

Fantastic Fen Inteview from This is Rock Magazine

Hi Doug, this is Francisco from This Is Rock Magazine Spain. First of all, I must congratulate you for Trails Out Of Gloom. Given that the album was released some months ago, do you already have a perspective of what has it meant to your career?

Thanks, Francisco. Trails Out Of Gloom is Fen's fourth album, but it's our first to get much critical attention. For many listeners it's the first they've heard of us, and they think we must be a new band, when actually we've been around for well over a decade. In that way, Trails Out Of Gloom is a new beginning for us. The album title could be significant in the sense that we have spent many years milling about in dark obscurity, and now we have finally come into the light of the media's narrow gaze. Ah, the wonder of marketing!

- Given that this is your first interview to our magazine, it would be great if you could tell us about Fen's origins. How did you and Sam Levin meet, and what did you want to achieve?

Sam and I met back in 1998, in a little pot-smoking mountain town called Nelson. We were teenagers at the time, and we started Fen after a single jam, where we droned a riff in 5/4 for about 45 minutes. We both played guitar, we both worshiped Tool and GnR, and we were driven to create our own dark and complex sound. The union came without hesitation.

- How would you describe Fen's sound?

The current sound is plaintive and brooding. Heavy and light. Subject to change.

- 'Trails Out Of Gloom'... the thing is that, although definitively dark sounding, the new album has many acoustic passages that, somehow, enlightens the compositions, taking them out of the gloom that surrounds your previous works... Has this acoustic side of the album been in the composition from the beginning of the writing sessions?

Most of the songs on Trails Out Of Gloom began on classical guitar, and the original plan was to make an acoustic album. During moments of weakness though, I strayed from that initial plan and experimented with bits of distortion here and there, and once I'd heard those distorted layers, I couldn't do without them. My roots are in heavy music, and that primal pull was too strong to resist. The final recording ended up being an amalgamation of the two textures, heavy and light. I always loved those classical-sounding Metallica intro's, but I wanted them to carry on for longer, and I wanted them to develop more slowly, rather than cutting straight to the thrashing. In a way, Trails Out Of Gloom helps bridge that transition for me.
 
- Fen's lineup has gone through several changes throughout these years, though yourself and Sam have always been the band's core...Do you think that these changes brought new elements into the band's sound?

Everyone we've played with have been exceptional musicians who can't help but bring something new to the sound. At the same time, our approach to songwriting has changed with each recording. This combination of variables has resulted in a big gap between the chaos of our first album, Surgical Transfusion of Molting Sensory Reflections, and the measured progressions of Trails.


- Given the band's sound evolution... Have you got an idea of how will Fen sound in a couple of albums time?

We've been working on new material, and from a guitar perspective, it's heavier and proggier than Trails. Sam's been writing high energy rock/metal-type riffage. Also, for the first time since our 2003 album, Heron Leg, we're bringing bass and drums into the writing process much earlier. For anyone who's only heard Trails, the next album may be a shock.

- 'Trails Out Of Gloom' is an album that requires several listenings to be fully appreciated, and is a perfect example of what a "grower" is.  Does the good music always need an extra effort in order to get into it?

It's a fine balance in songwriting, offering enough yum-yums in the first few listens to keep people coming back, but reserving the more exquisite treats for subsequent listens. I can't say that I know how it's done. The music for Trails took a long time to write - about three years. Perhaps that slow evolution into being can account for its "grower" status.

- For 'Trails Out Of Gloom' you have signed with Ripple Music. How was this contract forged? Do you plan to re-release your former albums with Ripple, so they could reach a wider audience?

I had contacted The Ripple Effect Blog a couple years ago, asking them to review our latest album at the time, Congenital Fixation. They came back with a killer review, then they requested an interview, and eventually they told us they were starting a label and wanted us to sign on. Their hard work and enthusiasm has helped us reach a lot of new listeners. And yes, we'll be re-releasing Congenital Fixation under the Ripple flag later this year.

- Remembering the fast and energetic entrance of 'Cockroach Eyelids' from the previous 'Congenital Fixation', I can do nothing else but wonder how you have taken that energy and embellished it with layers of emotional playing. Even the guitar parts seems to be more melodic. Is 'Trails Out Of Gloom' Fen's more intimate work?

With Congenital Fixation, Sam wrote the guitar parts and I wrote the vocals and the songs came together collaboratively. But with Trails, Sam was occupied with school and health issues, so I took up the guitar end as well. There's no doubt that he's a superior  player, and I did everything I could to keep the standard high with my more limited skills, which included layering and different textures and a lot of attention to arrangement. As you've mentioned, the result was pretty different. I guess the intimacy of Trails can be attributed in part to the acoustic root of the songs, but also to the fact that I was working on it alone.


- Your voice has been truly improved all along these years, and it feels like you feel much more confident with your singing style... Do you agree with that?

Thanks for your kind words, Francisco. I'm always trying to improve my skills as a vocalist. That's what keeps me going - the thought that the best is yet to come. But as much as my skills might have improved, I think it might be that I've come closer to finding a musical landscape that allows my voice to explore its full range. If I was suddenly thrown into any number of bands that go strictly with power chords and driving beats, half my lines would disappear. I'd be a vocal cripple.


- It has been recorded a video for 'Miracle'... Why did you choose that song? What can you tell us about this video?
 
The guys at our label thought 'Miracle' was the strongest tune on the album, and when making a video on a tight budget, shorter is better, so it was an easy choice. The video features two marionettes in a miniature landscape constructed of rocks and sticks and brambles and whatever else we could grab from nearby parks and beaches. In this set, arranged on a 4ft by 6ft plywood board, the two puppets play out a story of decayed love. We made the video with the help of Mind of a Snail Puppet Co and a handful of friends. You can watch it on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YP4zO07MF3I

- Given the fact that 'Trails Out Of Gloom' was published more than half a year ago... Do you think that this is time to think about Fen's future plans?

Our biggest goal right now is getting our live sound up to snuff. To do that, we plan on making some short tours through western Canada over the next year, and expanding the periphery of our local shows. That, plus writing and recording a new album should keep us busy.

- Can you tell us something about the gigs that you played for 'Trails Out Of Gloom'? How would you describe a Fen gig?

We're still getting comfortable in the live setting. I don't think we've found what we are yet, live. Right now we're slowly adding new elements to the show to see how we can create a more Fen environment while we're up there. We've got a show tonight and we're going to try out some sound effects between songs. We've been wanting to incorporate some kind of visuals as well, but haven't found a way to begin yet. For us, the music comes first, and the entertainment aspect is a faraway second, so it will develop more slowly.


- Well, I Think it's all by now, Doug. Thanks a lot for your time, and wish you all the best. Have you got anything to say to your Spanish fans?

Gracias! We're honoured to have you as listeners. To stay in touch with Fen, join our email list at www.fenmusic.ca or "like" us at www.facebook.com/fenmusic. We have many more albums ahead of us.

Symfonia - In Paradisum

You ever get really drunk and order a pizza?

And even though you were so bloated you couldn't breath, let alone sleep, it was the greatest pizza ever?

In Paradisum is that experience, in album form.

It's everything you might imagine: European metal (e.g., Helloween, Scorpions, Stratovarius, Rising Force, etc.), modeled distantly off European composers, playing heavily-distorted metallic symphonic music; so cheesy it's beyond semantics: tapped guitar solos and, ahem, symphonic chord progressions....

In the right mood, it is goddamn glorious.

Track one, "Fields of Avalon" intro's with fucking harpsichord...! Then operatic vocals, telling a tale of epic woe over a riff George Lynch is mad he didn't write! An updated version of Yngwie's "I'll see the light tonight"....

[You're either totally in by now, or not. You know. If not-- you disgust me. Don't even look at me, Jesus. I can't stand the sight of you.]

Next-- the fucking solo starts with harpsichord! Then...! a guitar solo that would make Herman Li ejaculate!

"Come By The Hills," track 2-- again with the harpsichord! Yes, they will abuse it, and you will love it, bitch! Then: a menacing guitar/bass backup! Holy Fucking Buddha, could this get more awesome?!

Yes.

Yes it can.

Track 3, "Santiago," is symphonic Motorhead, complete with D-beat... somehow managing to squeeze in a solo reminiscent of Warrant, of all bands....

Holy Shit-- I'm actually trying to listen to this in sections, a bit at a time, but I can't stop listening... In Paradisum draws me in....

"Alayna," the exemplary power metal ballad, won't let me stop listening... it's every relationship I had my Junior year in High School, down to its up-bent final note... It's actually freaking me out how it's completely transporting me back to 1987.... I feel so sad about this chick Alayna, and I have no idea who she is... whoever she is, she fucked up the singer... whore!!

[This is what I'm talking about! This fucking cheesy shit grabs you and makes you take a stand...! Regardless of how stupid you sound!]

"Forevermore," (who else would dare call a song that?) starts with manic riffs, both heavy and melodic....

"Pilgrim Road," melody in the thin-guitar-stringed riff with keyboards, Helloween in 2011, essentially... face-fucking solo at 2:15....

Possible album highlight "Rhapsody in Black" is Accept meets Queensrÿche with a dash of Journey and Kiss' "I Was Made for Loving You...." "I walk in neon" suggests Geoff Tate and Co. again with the title and the opening harpsichord....

Closer "Don't Let me Go," another ballad with what is probably a cello in the background... this should've been on MTV's top 10 in 1986... sad, cheestastic: my inner teenager could not be more involved now....

You will hum every Goddamn inch of this album. It's a earworm waiting to happen, again and again....

All irony aside: In Paradisum is cheesy as shit-- but it's completely unironic, optimistic, exalted Heavy Metal, in all senses of the term-- and it will rock your goddamn face off, like nothing else.

"Irony" has a half-life. "Irony" is for hipsters and people too cool (read: afraid) to believe in something.s

Symfonia believe.

Mock them all you want, but they love their music.

The term "Heavy Metal" either has a religious, holy, sacred connotation to you... or you smirk at the notion.

If you know, and I mean know, in your heart of hearts, know in your very studded soul, in your denim-jacketed world, what Heavy Metal means--

GET.

THIS.

ALBUM.

10/1o, two thumbs up, Gold Metal, whatever:

Beer chugging, horn-throwing, spliff-smoking perfection.

Thank me later.

--Horn

PS: Fucking suh-weet album cover. Get that shit airbrushed on the side of a van, PRONTO.

 Buy here: In Paradisum

Urizen - Universe: Red

Can you hear it?  The sounds of familiar 8-bit noises and metallic riffs ring through the air. “What is this sound.”, you ask yourself. This is the sound of Urizen. Born from a secret laboratory in Colorado and transported to Texas, Urizen are on the rise. There latest record, Universe:Red sets a new standard for progressive metal.

Universe:Red is the third installment from Texas Avant-Metalers Urizen. From the first track, “A Noiseless Flash” you can already tell this will be a special album. Reminiscent of your favorite 1980’s video game, the tack makes you wonder if you will be saving the Princess or shooting some Asteroids.

“A Noiseless Flash” seemingly integrates into the powerful blast beat laden, “A Budding Consciousness”. The vocal styling of Thomas add a much needed wittiness to an otherwise dull metal scene. Thomas has an almost Phil Collins flavor to him (please do not ask to taste him). His Collins-esque vocals can be heard predominately on the track, “Nothing Is Epic”. A groovy mix of metal and jazz. Also included on this album is the  highly catchy single called “Boxmen”. It makes you want to see the world through that of a box and scream BOXMEN!! BOXMEN!! over and over. By God, you will never get the beat out of your head, and that’s a good thing.

As great as the album is, their live show is something someone must truly witness. I have been fortunate enough to have been able to see them at least once every few months for the last 5 plus years. From their birth during the “Autocratopolis” era to the current “Universe” era, Urizen stage shows continue to progress.

Robots, blob monsters and Urimen. These are but a few things that are a Urizen show. They are something that must be witnessed live to truly get the whole feeling of how great this band is.
I mean there’s a giant f’n robot on stage through half their set. What more do you need?

Go to www.urizenonline.com and pick up your copy of Universe:Red. It's is the perfect gift for weddings, Bat Mitzvahs, shuttle launches, corporate retreats, or even just as an afternoon pick-me-up!


--Cicatriz

buy here: Universe Red
or from the band: www.urizenonline.com

Opeth - In Live Concert at The Royal Albert Hall

No matter how hard I try, how many fancy words I string together, to try and describe Opeth’s In Live Concert at The Royal Albert Hall, I fear I simply won’t do this package it’s due justice. To aptly describe this majestic release, I would have to channel the essence of James Michener, who’s thousand page epics have a tendency to sprawl across hundreds, nay . . . thousands of years of a subjects existence, depicting the great land movements, the tectonic shifts and violent volcanic episodes that formed the environment that the subject may call home. I would then have to detail out every last bit of emotion and nuance from the main character(s), so rich in detail that you would feel that you’ve just spent the last century walking in their shoes. Then, I’d weave such an intricate tapestry of words that you would swear that you could taste the dust of a country road on your tongue, feel the bitter cold of a Chesapeake winter, or smell the floral scents of perfume on a maidens breast . . . or, in the case of Opeth, the stinging taste of battery acid on your tongue, the sweltering heat of an enclosed venue, or the ripening smell of the bodies struggling within said venue.

I can use all of those nifty adjectives that we writers like to use so much. Awesome. Amazing. Fantastic. Astonishing. Yeah, they all work because they do express some amount of excitement about that which they are describing. But in the case of In Live Concert at The Royal Albert Hall, they’re simply not adequate enough descriptors. A four disc vinyl set with two DVD’s will never adequately be described by one word, especially a set as painstakingly detailed as this particular issue. This set deserves . . . no, requires a tome of words to form a shadow of what is actually going on. The set will require another volume to add color.

For Opeth’s twentieth anniversary, Mikael Akerfeldt and company decided to do a short tour, hitting a few venues that harbor an image of class and respect, and then release the subsequent recordings in a package that would be represent the band and cater to the record collecting masses (of those of us who are still out here.) The two album set is all recorded live and spans the full career of Opeth, paying homage to many of the members of the band who have since moved on, and spotlighting with special attention their breakout album, Blackwater Park, by performing it in its entirety. The packaging on this set draws me back to those glorious days of the 1970’s, an era when rock n’ roll, progressive music, whatever, paid close attention to the visual marketing of the album art, the imagery, the overall sensation of buying a record and vegging for hours with the music as the soundtrack to the visual stimuli that the artist had created . . . a phenomenon that was inhibited by the CD revolution and completely lost in the digital age. This particular box set includes a concert poster and a twenty page book with “Awesome. Amazing. Fantastic. Astonishing” photos from the concert at The Royal Albert Hall . . . all serious eye candy to lose oneself while the vinyl does its glorious dance on the turntable.

However, the imagery really means nothing if the musical quality isn’t there. Let’s face it. We all have those great pieces of vinyl where the album art is infinitely superior than the musical quality . . . Meatloaf, I’m looking at you. In the case of In Live Concert at The Royal Albert Hall, the musical quality is sharp, loud, and clearer than just about any live recording I’ve heard, and the performances are a testament to the physical and mental abilities of these five musicians. I’ve said it before, with the advent of Pro Tools and all of the various technical studio tricks, recording ten minute epics that shift moods, musical styles, tempos, and time signatures is cool, but it’s almost too easy. Maybe I’ve become jaded. But to pull off that feat live, without a net, as they say . . . that, my friends, is what being a musician is all about! To put this latest live adventure into perspective, imagine that Opeth is playing all of Blackwater Park, which they do, without fucking up the parts and transitions (coz’ you should know that there are plenty of those lying around) and then follow it up with an additional eight songs that touch on every variation of the bands creativity, every stylistic change, every musical nuance from the last twenty years. Breath taking.

I could go through every song and wax poetic about their deeper meaning to my every heartbeat, but that got old the second I thought about it. Instead, you really need to listen for yourselves. In particular, “Bleak,” “Blackwater Park,” “Advent,” “The Moor,” “Harlequin Forest,” and set closer “The Lotus Eater” jump to mind as the moments that I felt the greatest shiver of someone walking on my grave, of staring into the mesmerizing gaze of a thousand succubi, or breathing in the noxious and intoxicating fumes of Hades. I can’t help but marvel at the performances of these musicians, the rich textures that they apply with their respective instruments, and the overall exhilarating physical sensation that I get when I hear the sounds and tones spew from my speakers and bathe me in their brilliance.

After basking in the sonic splendor of the aforementioned four discs, I made my way to the Ripple Theater and dropped in the DVD’s. “Awesome. Amazing. Fantastic. Astonishing.” I honestly don’t think I breathed for something like four hours. Mouth agape, I stared . . . completely transfixed on the visual performance of this concert. The band must have used something like 3,000 cameras (a slight exaggeration) for this production. We had the standard center stage angle, left stage angle, right stage angle . . . got a little creative with the behind the band, over-the-shoulder angle, some nice crowd angles and then a few nice shots of the drummers foot (always a fan of the drummers foot work) . . . and then there were the camera angles where I swear I could count the musicians’ nose hair. The visuals were cool, nothing interstellar like a band mascot running out on stage and catching fire (as cool as that always is), just clean and concise images that help separate Opeth from any other band on the face of the planet. I found the stage presence of the various band members intriguing. Martin Mendez with his hair whipping from side to side, Fredrik Akesson dropping into the classic metal headbanging pose, the relaxed, almost bored look of drummer Martin Axenrot, and maniacal glare and eccentric demeanor of keyboardist Per Wiberg . . . and, of course, the stalwart center figure of Mikael Akerfeldt . . . they all just had that look!  

When watching this, note the guitar issues that the band has during particular songs. With a simple wave of his hand, Mikael Akerfeldt signaled to his guitar tech, and without panic, without stepping away from the mic, continues belting out his trademark death growl with the same sincerity as we’ve grown to become accustomed . . . guitar tech switches out guitars in mid vocal line and BAM! He disappears and the show goes on. I give a nod of respect to the professionalism that Akerfeldt shows here because I’ve seen the opposite from bands in the past, people become flustered, they freeze or start throwing tantrums, ultimately making the show suffer. Not here, not with Opeth. The best part though is in the second set closer, “The Lotus Eater,” as guitarist Fredrik Akesson has his own set of technical issues with his gear. In listening to the LP version, it simply sounds like the band has an extended quiet passage going on in the song, kind of like they’re playing with the crowd a bit . . . as if this was a planned break. Seeing what actually happened fills in the gaps from the pure audio portion, but I think it’s interesting how the mind goes places based on the information it’s given.

Yeah, I spent more money than I could really afford on this production, but food is overrated anyway. Hey! It’s not like anyone’s ever really starved to death, right? In truth, based on how much I want to listen to this album, and spend four-plus hours glued to my television watching this performance, how excited I get when I start talking about this album to people, how many words I just wrote as tribute on this release, hell . . . I’d spend the money all over again. If you’re an Opeth fan and you’re on the fence about this album for any reason, then I would hope that these words have acted a gentle nudge to knock you off the fence. If you’re new to Opeth and are looking for a jumping off point to get into this band, this is the place to do it. You get Blackwater Park in its entirety and select choices from every album before and since, with performances that capture the band at the height of its creative brilliance. If you don’t like Opeth and have no interest in the band whatsoever, I thank you for reading this far though I’m confused why you would have spent your time doing so.  -  Pope    

FYI – this release does come in numerous formats, so don’t feel that because I wrote about the vinyl edition that you have no other choices. Rock on! 

--Pope

buy here: Opeth - In Live Concert At The Royal Albert Hall (2DVD/3CD)
buy here: DVD Opeth - In Live Concert At The Royal Albert Hall (2DVD)
buy here: mp3: In Live Concert At The Royal Albert Hall

www.opeth.com

Fen - Trails Out Of Gloom

WOW!! Every now and then you roll across a CD that just affects your soul in a way that is both disturbing and pleasing. You find yourself listening to it over and over and with every repeat listening, a deep trance like feeling washes over you. Songs seem to flow, as you find yourself adrift in a collection of Progressive Rock filled aggressively dark, brooding and hauntingly majestic material that you will find difficult to put down. This is what Vancouver, B.C. band, Fen will do to you. The brainchild of guitarist/vocalist Doug Harrison and guitarist Sam Levin, Fen, have released their 4th album, Trails Out of Gloom (Ripple Music), a scrapbook of 9 eerily memorable lullabies, sagas and stirring ballads, which engages the audience onto a trip of almost mythical proportions. Filled with dark lyrics and delivered by painstaking personal vocals, Fen offers a CD that feels like a beautifully, anguish filled dream, with songs that stories with both voice and instrument. Haunting, deliberate and chilling.

Blending elements of Progressive Rock with the aggressiveness of Metal and the melodic sensibilities of modern Alternative Rock, Fen have created a complex artistic expression that from the first acoustic, lamenting notes of CD opener, "Trails Out of Gloom", simply captivates the imagination. With the ability of being able to grasp the listener and dive in and out of various musical forms, fans of Porcupine Tree, Tool, and the elegant side of Opeth, will easily call Fen their own. Doug Harrison delivers vocal performances that are stellar and soothing with beautiful and soaring melodies, all the while being quite quirky. Imagine if you can, a blend of the passionate vocals of a Brent Smith of Shinedown and the obscure, often falsetto'ed, idiosyncratic styling's of The Mars Volta's, Cedric Bixler-Zavala, and you are on the right path. Harrison somehow makes this delicate combination work and leaves you wanting more.

Gloomy dynamics of early '90's Seattle-themed Hard Rock, filters through the excellent production on this opus and hi-jacks you through a myriad of moods of almost psychedelic proportions that showcase the overflowing talent of both Harrison and Levin. Heavier moments on Trails Out of Gloom are counterbalanced with acoustic guitar passages that just co-habitat so perfectly in a grandiose fashion, much in that brilliant Opeth/Porcupine Tree way. Enormous and intense are just two of the magnificent words that come to mind to describe the utter brilliance contained within. Standout track, "The World is Young", while heavy and herculean, this song intersects with a delicate cascading beauty with glorious vocals.

 Fen delivers a different type of "heavy" with Trails Out of Gloom, one that is dank and opaque, with plenty of texture and substance that requires complete digestion for your optimum pleasure. This is very much like a classic '70's Prog Rock record that contains immensely crafted songs with excellently well written lyrics that also allows for the musical interludes to not be self indulgent, but rather an integral piece of the pie. There are no 12 minute overkill pieces here, but rather 6 minute voyages into remarkableness. And remarkable this CD is. This CD will impact you immediately, but the true brilliance of Trails Out of Gloom comes from further absorption. This is a stellar release.

--Butch Jones via Sea of Tranquility

Buy here: Trails out of Gloom

Let your Fingers Do The Talking – Progressive Instrumental Masterpieces - featuring Charles the Osprey and Canvas Solaris

In recent weeks, I’ve been holed up in the Ripple Offices concentrating on getting this label up, running, re-charged so that it could run some more, etc. Y’know, business as usual. And, like any record label/music PR firm/music review blog/music commentary radio show office will, there’s music going on. I haven’t really wanted to listen to too much new stuff because when I’m entrenched in detail oriented work or acts of mundanity (yes, I made up my own word,) I like to have material that I’m familiar with., stuff that I can unconsciously sing or hum to. But, that kinda’ changed when I discovered a couple of instrumental albums. I found that while the music was unfamiliar and went all over the place, it didn’t inhibit my flow of energy. I like that. Then I began to take note of the musical intricacies nestled within the flurry of notes, and I that I wasn’t singing with my voice, but rather with my hands. Just as the musicians within these submissions were doing.

Take a gander with your eyes and ears to these two releases, and hopefully you’ll find that little something that will inject you with some additional energy.

Charles The Osprey – Consider

This outfit is a duo, and frankly, I’ve never heard a two-piece create so much intricate sound. The duo of Rafael Ohli on guitars and Derek Lancioni on drums seem to speak in waves of sound as the weave their musical performances between each other like two birds in flight, like two dancers across a ballroom floor. The music is kind of post-punk-y, post-rock-y, post-harcore-y, and at first glance, may appear to be senseless showmanship, but that’s where folks would have the completely wrong idea of what these guys are doing. These songs have structure, albeit, a loose one. The tightness of the musicians’ performances are enthralling and, often times, breathtaking. Ohli’s fingers pull off impossible chord changes, scale runs, and technical feats  . . . all of it leaving my finger joints a little more sore than when I woke up. Lancioni’s drum work is as expressive as the guitar work . . . filling the songs with huge tom patterns, incorporating subtle cymbal crashes, and propelling the songs into some of the oddest time signatures imaginable. The two musicians then meet somewhere in the middle for these hopped up musical conversations and magic is created.

Listen to a song like “Hornets Don’t Have To Feint” and marvel at how these guys can be so damned technically proficient and still craft a compelling song. The song is filled with amazing guitar acrobatics . . . scales played at stunning speed, but executed with clarity. In the background, loosely holidng things together, Lancioni fires of rolls with accented snare crashes to compliment the work that Ohli is doing, and then things get crazy and off time. These guys say more with their hands than a gymnasium filled with debate teams do with their mouths. The composition of this song is immaculate. One part loose and feeling like they just sat down and jammed this out in one sitting, the other part of it feels like they must have stood in front of chalk board, plotting out the parts for eons. Heavily structured music with a loose under current.

And while songs like “Conversations With The Deacon, Vol. I” are mind-boggling feats of musicianship, the song that absolutely floored me was “The Frontal Lobe A-Go-Go.” What a fucking master work! The clean guitar tones sound like they’re being pinched within their own groove and the way that Lancioni drops in, the whole tone of the song becomes this jazzy little epic. While Ohli is still holding down the rhythm, Lancioni is able to go ape shit, lobbing huge bursts of expression with the aid of his kit. In time, a dubbed in heavier distorted guitar creeps into the mix, adding an ominous wave of tension and intrigue. As the song cruises along its path, the duo holds back the barrage of notes and lets the song breath by adding longer pauses between the notes. But when they do get back to their chaotic nature, they don’t overdo it . . . they add just enough nuance and cacophony to create a dynamic shift in mood.

If you like progressive music and don’t’ mind a thrill ride when it comes to individual musical performances, then Charles The Osprey is not going to let you down on the first listen . . . or a one thousandth listen.

Buy here: Consider

http://www.frictionrecords.net/

Canvas Solaris – Irradiance    

     

Much like East of the Wall did a few years back with their stellar album Farmer’s Almanac, Canvas Solaris approach their post-metallic sounds with a complete disregard for the vocal element. Irradiate is filled with many an epic moment, constantly shifting the focus between the individual performance and the song composition, ultimately creating a piece of nine song masterpiece. The music, like most progressive music, utilizes odd time signatures, and what I’m finding most intriguing about Canvas Solaris is that they have an uncanny ability to create huge moments of mood. When these guys are all playing in seemingly different directions, it’s like walking through a dense forest, the senses are working overtime to process all that surrounds us, at times feelings claustrophobic and disoriented . . . and then when the band drops down to a more standard tempo and allow more space between the notes, it’s like walking out of that forest, into a wide open plain where the world is open for us to delight in its vastness.

“Conveyance of Flux” is a beautiful epic of a tune. Crafted in what sounds like a linear fashion, the song feels like it’s telling a story. I love how the track opens with some distorted synth-bass tones and then the rest of the band joins in with their avant jazzy attack, scale runs at a million miles an hour and drums snapping, smashing, and crashing like a wall full of china exploding on a hardwood floor. Then, to create nuance and extra dynamics, the band drop down and open up, sustaining notes and tones . . . creating space for the listener to breathe in the delights of the various sounds. This song has a lot of metal elements and, at times, reminds me of some of the more progressive moments of Iron Maiden and the gutter grit of Metallica. Note the exceptional bass work around the 3:34 mark. It doesn’t start off all that fancy, but after the first couple of measures, the bassist works some magical extra notes into the run and makes that portion of the song pop. Then, of course, there’s the understated guitar work with its volume swells and moody tones. I love that Canvas Solaris took us somewhere a little different on this song and didn’t simply dazzle us for the sake of dazzling.

“The Horizons Feast On Stars” is another fabulous journey into the mentally challenging areas of progressive music. Again, the band brings more mood and elements of emotional expression than most prog-music, and we as listeners don’t have to over think what the band is doing. This is partially due to them breaking up the din of multi-note flurries with ambient moments and subtle melodies. The three minute mark of this track is another high mark to listen for as this group of musicians executes highly proficient runs of music. “Glacier” follows it up with a high speed thrill ride that kind of paints images of riding on a snowmobile across an icy terrain, weaving in and out of frosty canyons, daring death to sweep us away. Then, there’s “Soliton,” a song that has huge jazzy elements, a quasi-Latin polyrhythm vibe, and some sexy bass tones. Amazing execution and an album that simply gets better and better with every listen! --Pope JTE

Buy here: Irradiance

http://www.myspace.com/canvassolaris