Issue 2024-063
The Aphelion — Nascence
The Aphelion are a group of friends from Ottawa, named after the furthest point from the sun in a celestial body's orbit. Described as progressive metal with little flecks of death, they have been spreading their sonic goal of innovation and dramatic flare since 2015. Here they have released their latest album, Nascence, a follow-up to their debut The Labour Division and part one of a double feature along with Senescence.
We begin with the short symphonic build up to harsh technical riffing in Prenascent, aptly titled as it fades out before the album's title track, Nascence enters the fray. An almost King Crimson vibe (think the Mirrors section of 21st Century Schizoid Man) brings us into the melancholic vibrato of Davis's vocals. What follows is a soaring journey through dark riffs and epic bridges, intermixed with blistering solos and false endings. Through The Seed of Doubt and Fragility, Cabral makes their presence known through some superb key work, building a dark atmosphere to compliment Davis and the rest of the music.
Aggressive guitar work mingle with gentler, but busy and tight passages throughout. Interestingly, they have a sound similar, but with fewer growls, to their opposite in name — Perihelion Ship, another progressive death band. The album is busy, with a lot going on at once. For example, through The Heavy Mist there is one vocal line, with another singing different lyrics as well as the instruments, so it can get a bit confusing at times. But considering the lyrics are discussing not being able to trust your mind, it seems suitable.
Throughout we have a steady modern sound, with hints of the chaotic origins of prog throughout. Technical music runs rampant under vocals that fly over the top bringing emotion and determination to the fore, while calmer areas are laid atop foundations of keys and vulnerability, but never letting up with the pace and intensity.
All together, this is a thoroughly enjoyable addition to the collection of talent in the world of progressive metal these days. If you have ever taken a liking to Caligula's Horse, Perihelion Ship, Opeth, Pain of Salvation or Haken, then these folks should suit your tastes fine.
The Crooked Fiddle Band — The Free Wild Wind And The Songs Of Birds
Making their first appearance in these pages are The Crooked Fiddle Band with their fourth album The Free Wild Wind And The Songs Of Birds, they have proved to be quite a surprise to me. This Australian quartet produce what they call "Chainsaw Folk", a mix of prog-folk that has a punk-infused prog-rock edge to it. The album is mainly instrumental with a few songs sprinkled throughout.
The Crooked Fiddle Band say their influences and sound take elements of 1970s stalwarts Planxty and Steeleye Span as well as more recent exponents such as The Decemberists and the Norwegian group Meer whose latest album had a blinding review on this site recently.
They say that their sound on this album is less intense than on their previous three releases and the opening track Midnight Frost... is a gentle strummed guitar instrumental that most resembles a country tune. But things don't stay that way.
...Frost On The Thistledown resembles the Japanese violin-led proggers Asturias in their occasional acoustic incarnation. It moves from the ceilidh dance rhythm opening of rolling drums (Joe Gould) and violin (Jess Randall) into an up-tempo prog workout, as Mark Stevens' double bass swings and George Wallace's guitar adds more meat. It is a great track.
The first of the songs is up next. A Cold Wind Blows, sung by guest vocalist Fanny Lumsden, is underpinned by the melodic drone of the mountain dulcimer while the lovely melodic vocal is supported by a cittern (a stringed instrument) that has a less strident mandolin-like sound. The other two songs are equally engaging. The sawing violin and loping rhythm of the traditional cowboy song Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie (vocals by Richard Cuthbert) and the similar but shorter closer The Call (vocals by Tom Lumsden).
The real interest for me is in the superb instrumentals that are in between these. Deadly Nightsnakes is an energetic and joyful jig that you would need to be a fitter person that me to keep up with. The beautiful mournful ballad Now Only The Flowers Gather with solo violin, cittern and mountain dulcimer. The Crooked Fiddle Band add a bluesy feel to The Wood Wakes as its tempo slowly increases then falls in an acoustic post-rock way.
On Old Thunder they have an intensity and heaviness that comes as a surprise. Loud and funky with additional strings, it is an excellent track and in my opinion should have been the closer here. In fact the running order of the tracks is the only, very minor, beef I have with the album. Placing two ballads back to back (Now Only the Flowers Gather and The Wood Wakes) may not have been the best move. But if you download it from Bandcamp you can play Record Producer and move things around.
The Crooked Fiddle Band's The Free Wild Wind And The Songs Of Birds has proved to be an excellent discovery. I'm off to listen to their others.
Mandoki Soulmates — A Memory Of Our Future
Leslie Mandoki is a very interesting character. To write down the man's full history and review his new album A Memory Of Our Future, that contains almost 80 minutes of music, is not an easy thing to do. For a brief history lesson I would like to refer to the previous Mandoki Soulmates review. Mandoki Soulmates started in 1992 when Leslie got a line-up together with a lot of well known musicians. Among the founding members are Ian Anderson and Bobby Kimball. Over the years Mandoki Soulmates have won several awards and many musicians have played with Mandoki Soulmates, among these musicians are Greg Lake, Steve Lukather and Chris Thompson. This new album A Memory Of Our Future also features many well known musicians. Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull), Randy Brecker, Mike Stern, John Helliwell (Supertramp), Simon Phillips (Toto) and many others. Musically, Leslie Mandoki was influenced by Jethro Tull, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Genesis, Yes, and Supertramp. These influences are present in the music, combined with a lot of jazz-fusion elements. Beside many different musicians there are also many different instruments on A Memory Of Our Future, like flute, saxophone, bugle, clarinet and accordion. The album has a superb production with using only analog recording equipment.
Opener Blood In The Water starts with flute, and during this groovy song the flute never goes away. A good song that never gets boring. Enigma Of Reason is over ten minutes long and this is the only time on the album where I think it is a bit too stretched, as at times just not much is happening. But again, this is the only time on this lengthy album I felt it was a bit too much.
The Wanderer is a mellow song, and it sounds like a combination of Sting and Phil Collins. The Big Quit is a very funky jazzy one. I for sure do like this one — a nice singalong chorus that glues itself in your mind. Really funky track with some poppy jazz stuff that is just very nice to listen to although the message is not very pleasant. The same can be said for the next song Devils Encyclopedia. Fun to listen to and it sticks in your mind quickly. Not as funky and more a protest song against social media but still highly enjoyable. The message is clearly "when words fail, music speaks".
Title track A Memory Of My Future is a lengthy track, mellow but is nicely balanced out. A lot of interesting things are going on. The mellow mood continues on I Am Because You Are, a slow jazzy song. The middle part of the album A Memory Of My Future seems to contain a block of mellow songs. My Share Of Your Life is a very beautiful song and Age Of Thought is a very jazzy instrumental song. Matchbox Racing is another great song with a message: "live your dream and don't dream your life". Nice clarinet melodies here.
With We Stay Loud we're back to the rock and protest song. Leslie Mandoki is not ready to pass the torch just yet and stays loud with his critical political social lyrics.
The final song on the album is Melting Pot and the title says it all. An instrumental song with a lot of different things all put together giving a jazzy feel overall.
A Memory Of Our Future is not just an album but a musical journey. Many different musicians all clearly enjoying themselves while making this album. The Mandoki Soulmates create passionate music with jazzy influences with an occasional rocker and always meaningful lyrics. High quality music and production and great musicians showing their crafts. With almost eighty minutes a lengthy release, but I played it many times back to front and enjoyed (almost) every minute. Highly recommended.
Wasaya — Curtain Falls
Wasaya are a new band to these ears and hail from Syria. They are led by Tarek Shehabi (guitars, piano, keyboards, synths, backing vocals, and writer of music and lyrics) and accompanied by a number of guest vocalists including Marco Gluhmann, Henrik Bath, Stefan Zall, Mike Anderson, and Rach April. Other musicians include Aram Kalousdian (drums), Simon Andersson (bass), and there are also a number of guests providing bass including Kristoffer Gildenlöw.
The band have produced a short album at only just over 38 minutes of progressive metal which is played well enough and features a decent variety of music but in the grand scheme of things, I am not really hearing anything that leaves me gob-smacked. If anything, this has all been done plenty of times before by other bands who score far more points for imagination and versatility while leaving the listener with something fresh to enjoy.
When you factor in the inclusion of no less than 8 vocalists including the growler and 5 guest bassists, you would be rightfully justified in expecting something a little more engaging. The album's length is also on the short side when you consider one of my recent reviews featured an album at almost twice this length. Thankfully, the growler is only given a few minutes on the centre stage.
As a multi-instrumentalist, Tarek is certainly pretty talented musically but the actual songs themselves need a bit more work to make them stand out from the pack. Perhaps some full time musicians who can contribute to the songwriting might help bring this band's music to the fore.
Nice try guys but better luck next time.