"A beautiful Mammoth!
Mammoth is the 6th album by Swedish band Beardfish. I have followed this band since their 2008 album "Sleeping in Traffic: Part II", and I have always liked them a great deal. But I think that with Mammoth Beardfish have reached a new high point - this is close to perfection, as far as I am concerned. Yes, the music is heavier than in previous albums - there is plenty of heavy guitar riffing here and the singing too has become edgier and more powerful (to the point of even including some growling on "And the Stone Said ..." courtesy of guest singer Jimmy Joensson). But this works incredibly well - some of the guitar riffs are simply mesmerizing (check out the guitar parts on the opener "The Platform", for example), and Rikard Sjoeblom proves that he can be a hell of a hard-rock singer if he wishes so. Moreover, albeit heavier, the music is still extremely melodic and tasteful, in traditional Beardfish style. Another pleasant surprise for me is that on Mammoth Beardfish seem to have learned to control their tendency to use a sort of 'everything-but-the-kitchen-sink' approach to music. In previous albums these four guys sometimes seemed to just throw into their songs everything that passed through their mind, saloon music and cabaret moments included. I've always found this slightly distracting. The approach used on Mammoth is instead much more focused and contained, which works to their advantage in my opinion.
It's hard to pick a highlight here - all 7 songs on Mammoth are top-notch quality and there is no weak moment on the whole album. My personal favourites are probably the wonderfully complex "And the Stone Said ...", the mellower "Tightrope" and the instrumental "Akakabotu", with its wonderful keyboard work and the excellent sax solos provided by guest musician Johan Holm.
Highly recommended!"
"Very impressive debut album, looking forward to the sequel!
"Oddity" is the debut album of multi-instrumentalist Franck Carducci. Franck is the lead voice on all songs of the album, and also plays all basses, acoustic and electric guitars and keys. The album features several guest musicians, most notably John Hackett, who contributes flute parts on the opening track, drummer and Phil Collins' disciple Phildas Bhakta, who also plays on the first track of the album, folk singer Yanne Matis who lends her beautiful voice to "The Eyes of Age" and to Genesis' cover "The Carpet Crawlers", and drummer Larry Crockett, who features on the bluesy "Alice's Eerie Dream".
"Oddity" contains 5 original songs and two bonus tracks, Genesis' "The Carpet Crawlers" and a radio edit of "Alice's Eerie Dream". The songs cover a variety of musical styles, from prog to blues rock to country and folk. Regardless of the particular style, all songs are skilfully executed and wonderfully composed ? they always keeps you interested and never drag. Surely, some of the music may sound somewhat derivative (Genesis and Pink Floyd are the most obvious classic influences to me, but also Spocks' Beard among the most recent prog outfits). However, and most importantly, all songs are great fun to listen to.
The opening "Achilles" and the closer "The Last Oddity" are probably the 'prog highlights' of the album. "Achilles" is a symphonic suite in six parts inspired by Omer's Iliad. The parts flow seamlessly one into another, and contains some great vocal melodies (Franck's voice is outstanding throughout the album) and excellent instrumental interludes (John Hackett's flute parts are particularly nice). "The Last Oddity" is a darker piece, inspired by Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey". A delicate acoustic guitar arpeggio, dreamy synth solos and interspersed otherworldly voices (Franck singing through a Leslie cabinet) give the first half of the song a spacey, dramatic feel which reminds me of Pink Floyd. Then the song surprisingly develops into a soulful, bluesy piece with some great electric guitar and Hammond work ? highly entertaining! The remaining three tracks are perhaps less 'progressive' in style, but nonetheless very good. "The Quind" is a meditative, Floydian song featuring some beautiful piano and acoustic guitar textures. Check out the inventive use of a didgeridoo over Hammond and acoustic guitar starting at mark 6:10. "The Eyes of Age" starts with a country feel but soon develops into a pastoral, folkish piece with violins, piano and double vocal melodies. This song reminds me of some RPI music (e.g. Angelo Branduardi). It is a very positive and uplifting track and one of my favourites of the album. "Alice's Eerie Dream" is a blues rock piece featuring some nice lead guitar work by Michael Strobel. It is probably the most 'ordinary' and mainstream track on the album and it sounds slightly too much as an exercise in style to me, but it is nevertheless an enjoyable song. I should also mention the excellent rendition of "The Carpet Crawlers", which witnesses Franck's passion for Genesis that also transpires throughout the album.
Overall, "Oddity" is a strong debut album, featuring some excellent songs which are great fun to listen to. I find particularly interesting the mixing of blues and folk with more traditional progressive rock sounds as in "The Last Oddity" and "The Eyes of Age". You can have a (free) listen and judge by yourself at Franck's Bandcamp page!"
"Not a bad effort, but somewhat lacking originality and diversity.
The 8 songs on Skylge's Lair, the second album by Dutch band Leap Day, have all a definitely melodic neoprog flavour, with a predilection for accessibility and melodiousness over complexity and technicalities.
Featuring two keyboard players in the ensemble, keys and synths play an obviously important role in laying down the texture of the songs and in defining the overall sound of the album. Unfortunately, the type of sound that is often chosen by the keyboardists is not entirely to my taste and it sounds slightly outdated. Guitarist Eddie Mulder also features prominently on the album and does a very fine job, especially in the soulful solos and guitar breaks that abound in all songs. There are also several exchanges between guitar and keyboards, with the latter used to repeat melodic lines first proposed by the guitar, and vice versa. However, in my opinion this does not always work as intended and results quite monotonous at times. Jos Harteveld's voice is convincing in the quieter passages, but not that much when the songs gain pace and would demand a more powerful approach. In fact, I believe that the vocal department is the weakest link on the album, and I am afraid to say that I enjoy much more the instrumental parts (such as the title track) than the ones that contain vocal melodies.
Overall, Skylge's Lair is a decent album, and I certainly enjoyed spinning it a couple of times. However, it does not do enough for me in terms of originality (this sounds too much as a standard 80s/90s neoprog release to be considered an 'excellent addition to any prog rock music collection') and diversity (most of the songs have similar sounds, pace, and structure, with the poppish ballad Road To Yourself and the short acoustic instrumental Humble Origin being welcomed exceptions)."
"The difficult trade-off between diversity and cohesion. The D Project is the brainchild of Stephane Desbiens, Canadian singer, guitarist and keyboard player. The music on Big Face can perhaps be described as dark symphonic prog rock (King Crimson, Pink Floyd) entwined with some 'deviant' prog metal elements - in the spirit of Devon Graves' Deadsoul Tribe where the rhythm distorted guitars are kept low in the mix and the bass and voice take a leading role. The highlights of the album are definitely its gloomy atmospheres (check out the first couple of minutes of the opener They to see what I mean) and Desbiens' amazing guitar solos - it doesn't get much better than when excellent technical skills are combined with expressive guitar playing. On the negative side, I feel that the album somehow lacks cohesion - the listener is taken through a mixture of styles (pop/punk, AOR, some mainstream rock as well as more proggy parts) that don't always stick well together. It is almost as Desbiens decided to throw in the mix as many influences as he could to make the songs interesting and original. This approach can be as unsuccessful as it can be rewarding. Unfortunately, in this case it just does not work. The impression that Big Face is a rather disjointed album is further aggravated by the fact that the quality of the music is not steady across its 9 songs. For sure, the album contains some excellent songs: They is a brilliant opener, half way between Pink Floyd and King Crimson, with a great bass groove provided by Tony Levin and amazing sax parts courtesy of Giovany Artega; the title track Big Face is a fine dark rock song where Quidam's singer Bartek Kossowicz delivers an excellent performance as lead voice; Conspiracy is an adventurous instrumental that grabs the listener attention and doesn't let go. However, on Big Face there is also plenty of rather uninteresting fillers (e.g. the ordinary punk/rock aggression of So Low and Anger III, or the boring AOR ballad Kids Will Never Know). Overall, this leaves me with mixed feelings about this album. At the end of the closing song, Poussiére De Lumière, I often find myself tempted to give the album another spin so that I can immerse myself again in the beautiful sombre atmospheres that some of the songs manage to create. However, I then remember the boring bits - and at the thought of having to go through these, I often give up and reach for some other musical adventure. Between 2 and 3 stars, really."
"Dark, melodic, modern and original - great music from France
(4603 BATTEMENTS) is the 5th album from excellent French outfit Lazuli. The band is currently composed of Dominique Leonetti (vocals, guitar), Claude Leonetti (léode - an instrument designed by Leonetti himself and described on the band's website as an "improbable mix of a guitar, a synthesizer and a melodic saw"), Gederic Byar (guitar) and new members Romain Thorel (keyboards) and Vincent Barnavol (drums).
The album contains a convincing mix of acoustic and electric rock, with a decided predilection for melody and atmosphere over complexity and technicism. The clever combination of samples and synths with a more traditional use of acoustic guitars and orchestration makes the music sound fresh and modern while remaining within the boundaries of melodic rock tradition. Claude's use of the léode greatly contributes to create a unique sound for the band, which makes Lazuli stand out relative to other outfits proposing a similar blend of eclectic prog rock (indeed it was an airplay of the song "Je Te Laisse Ce Monde" with its fantastic léode solo that first caught my attention and encouraged me to find out more about this band). It is exactly the screaming sound of the léode, as well as the use of a brooding guitar sound and heartfelt vocals, that manage to infuse all songs with a melancholic but sinister atmosphere which brings to mind the latest Porcupine Tree or Norwegian electro-dark band Manes (although they do sound quite different from both bands). Some listeners might be put off by the fact that the lyrics are in French. In my opinion the use of French also contributes to the distinctiveness of the sound offered by the band. Moreover, the music alone is more than successful in conveying the moods and atmosphere.
Personal highlights of the album are the aforementioned Je Te Laisse Ce Monde, the more intimate Le Miroir aux Alouettes, the fantastic Les Malveillants with its catchy chorus, and the trippy Saleté de Nuit (great vocal performance by Dominique Leonetti here). But all songs on the album are consistently good, and the album as a whole is a very mature effort.
Highly recommended!"
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lukretio has interacted with 151 releases.