Mayfair

"In 1993, Mayfair released one of the most original progressive metal albums to ever see the light of day. A couple of albums down the line, the Austrian pioneers decided to call it a day, and their work remained obcure till they recently decided to get back together and, firstly reissued ”Behind...” on Pure Prog Records, and this year saw the release of their comeback album ”Schlage mein Herz, Schlage”.

The title track 'Schlage men Herz, Schlage' is a quite psychedelic affair with esoteric mildly distorted guitars and …, while 'Firestorm' is atmospheric and features some elements akin to alternative rock. The alternative mode and the atmospheric mood also characterizes the heavy and brooding 'Wwwrong', which also offers a sense of dark psychedelia as well as some more solid merallic riffage towards the end. 'Drei Jahre Zurück' combines minimalistic gutiar figures with driving, but melancholic, metallic pumping riffs. 'Abendp_rno' (I think it's Abendporno', which mean 'porno in the evening) combines metallic drumming with punky riffs and, 'Island' is a nother heavy and darkly psychedelic track with simpel clean guitars overlaid on top of atmospheric and noisy guitars in the background – not unlike what you might hear in drone metal or atmospheric and depressive black metal (without this song sounding at all like those two genres). 'Du Allein' is similarly dark, at time reminding me of a blend of U2 at their darkest and Paradise Lost at their lightest (check out the chorus). 'Tric Trac' is in the same dark and heavy vein, but features some more overtly hard rocking guitar riffage in the choruses, and also features some more metal-oriented drumming. 'Bitter or Sweet' is perhaps the most metallic track on the album, as it is pretty much an outright doom metal track. The approporiately titled 'Abschied' is an atmospheric track which neatly captures the overall feel of the album.

As on their debut 'Behind...', the guitars have a somewhat atmospheric feel to them in terms of their sound, and the overall production is marked by an organic feel. The musicianship and songwriting is impeccable, but we are dealing with compositions that are more on the complex side and musical aesthetics which have more in common with dark alternative rock than with all out metal.

”Schlage mein Herz, Schlage” is a nice re-entry into the progressive scene. It is perhaps more on the atmospheric side than on the metallic one, but there definitly are hard rock and metal elements to be found on the album. Rather than a progressive metal album in the purest sense of the word, ”Schlage mein Her, Schlage” is an eclectic progressive album that combines elements from alternative rock, gothic rock, heavy metal, and hard rock into a dark and atmospheric blend. I honestly think that the album will not appeal to all metalheads, and many metalheads will probably reject it as a metal release at all.

But that does not change the fact that we are dealing with a brilliant release which delivers the goods in the form of sophisticated dark rock.

(review originally posted at metalmusicarchives.com)"