Issue 2025-068
Aeons — 6EQUJ5
Calum Gibson
From the Isle of Man, comes Aeons and their 23-minute-long EP, consisting of the track 6EQUJ5. With three albums under their belts, the quintet is hard at work on album number 4, but have released this EP to celebrate signing to Layered Reality Productions and to keep their fans keen in the interim.
Soft leads introduce us to their sound, backed up by gentle vocals that flow across the synths and 70s prog stylings. Soon, however, we are greeted by heavy chugs and harsh vocals as the façade falls away to reveal a bedrock of metal.
The track borders the line between the prog styling of both metalcore and death metal at times, combing elements of both to create an interesting sound. At times, there is a similar structure to groups like Ne Obliviscarus and Trivium, and other times it flows back into calmer passages before running back into hard-hitting riffs and solos.
There is a nice mix of styles here, and a lot of the solos have the atmospheric “epic” vibe to them, especially with the melancholic layering of instrumentation behind them. The blend of cleans and harsh vocals, as well as the technical riffs, filled with groove and elements of speed metal create an interesting and fresh sound as well.
I'd recommend for fans of progressive-minded metal bands, from Trivium to Tool and Gojira.
Ricky Capone — Wormhole
Sergey Nikulichev
I shall put it briefly.
Wormhole is an obscure release from an equally unknown artist Ricky Capone. Very little information on him can be found on the web, and apparently he is a relative debutant in the musical field, with only a couple of releases since 2022. We reviewed two of them (Cardiff Gate and La Scala Suite).
Or at least he sounds like one. The album represents a collection of tracks which can vaguely be described as instrumental space rock / psychedelic music, with the very familiar congenital diseases of one-man efforts: drums taken from Fruity Loops™, thin sound, aimlessly wandering compositions, very basic instrumental skills.
There are a couple of nice ideas on Wormhole. But ideas have value if one is capable of making compositions out of them. Ricky Capone is not (yet). The artist here is clearly in the beginning of his way to mastery – and I'd rather he shows these tracks to his musical teacher to get arrangement advice from him, and not from the audience.
From a perspective, those seem to be unrewarding 50 minutes. Skip unless you devour everything related to space-theme music.
The lack of info, a cover image we even had to get from Spotify — clearly not a lot of energy has gone into promotion, so we'll leave it at this.
Fearful Symmetry — I've Started, So I'll Finish...
Thomas Otten
Fearful Symmetry are a studio-based project (which I will keep calling "band" going forward), originally created in 2018 by cousins Suzi James and Jeremy Shotts, the latter being no longer present in the set-up. They wanted to create something new from all the music they've enjoyed listening to, bringing about, as mentioned on their website, “an affectionate homage to classic prog, but contemporary sounding compositions, that cross different subgenres, and aim to convey a familiar sound and feel”. So far, the band was totally unknown to me.
Fronting Fearful Symmetry is UK-based multi-instrumentalist, composer and arranger Suzi James, who started to play guitar in the 70s. She continuously enlarged her musical skills to also include bass, keyboards, flute, violin, mandolin and oud (a lute-related instrument rooted in the Near- and Middle East), all of them audible on this album.
I've Started, So I'll Finish... is the band's third release, following Louder Than Words from 2019 and The Difficult Second, released in 2022. Despite being a studio-project "only" with no on-stage activities, Suzi has managed to keep the line-up stable throughout these three releases consisting of both Israel-based musicians Yael Shotts (vocals) and Sharon Petrover (drums), the latter being active in many different musical genres and having recorded amongst others with Israel's Project RnL (love their music). Mark Cook, also known for his work with Djam Karet, and Herd Of Instinct amongst others, acts as soloist on the Warr Guitar (a unique American-made touch guitar) on the track There Are No Words.
I've Started, So I'll finish... is made up of ten songs, three instrumentals and seven with vocals, extending to, except for the last one, four to six minutes in length. With respect to the lyrics, a wide spectrum is covered, ranging from relationship issues, longings, and the current worrying state of the world to Scottish legends and Japanese mysticism. As Suzi states, the words "reflect personal experiences to some extent, but can be translated into general world issues also - a world which requires some serious reconstruction."
Turning to the music: since Suzi is responsible for all the instruments on this album except vocals and drums, one might assume that the latter two are merely incidental to her performance. However, this is by no means the case. The way the songs are arranged contributes to this music sounding as if each of Suzi's instruments was played by an individual musician. Furthermore, it enables Yael and Sharon to demonstrate their exceptional musical abilities as absolutely equal parts of the whole. Yael's warm, emphatic, subtle yet powerful and melodic voice adds feeling, depth, and atmosphere to the songs. Sharon's virtuoso, crisp and varied drumming is a defining element of Fearful Symmetry's music. (A small side note in this context: eight out of the ten songs start with solo drums as the song-opening instrument.) The contribution of the instruments played by Suzi to the music altogether, her musical origins, and her preference for the guitar become clear. However, keyboards also play a significant role, and there seems no end to her musical ability regarding every instrument she plays.
I think the description on Fearful Symmetry's website mentioned above puts it correctly. On the basis of classic (70s) prog (Yes are mentioned as a source of inspiration), the music is a successful blend of various styles. Clearly audible fusion and jazz-rock elements, but also plain hard rock features, snippets of folk, some funk, and touches of world music. Similarities with other bands are challenging to find, a proof of Fearful Symmetry's originality. Anakdota, Soft Machine, King Crimson, Brand X, Al di Meola, Nucleus- a bit of all those and a lot of Fearful Symmetry.
The songs are arranged in a dense and compact way, so don't expect lengthy instrumental excesses. The band does not need these because they manage to create harmony and sonic diversity, variety and complex rhythms within each song. Diversity is also the correct description when it comes to the entire album, though. None of the songs sounds alike. That means there are no wear and tear effects even after repetitive listening.
Blues-based hard rock (The Demented Third, originally intended to be the title of the album) follows a song played in a swinging and swaying 6/8 time signature (Hard As Diamonds, my favourite track, with subtle, melodic synthesizer playing, a bit reminding me of Happy The Man), which itself succeeds a rhythmically complex jazz rock/fusion opener One By One. Inspired by Scottish folk music, The Dance Of Ghillie Dhu (a faerie, the "Dark Haired Lad" in Gaelic) highlights violin, acoustic guitar, and violin in a waltz-like 3/4-time measure.
Everything And Nothing is a a piano-led romantic ballad with a touch of melancholy, whilst the instrumental (as the title suggests) There Are No Words is a jazzy tune with a great Warr guitar solo against a grooving rhythm. The final epic The Tears Of The Gods, dealing with a central theme of Japanese mythology, the creation of Japan, comes across as genuine prog rock with some world music touches, a song with changing moods and atmospheres, intensive soloing and a considerable instrumental depth.
I very much liked listening to and reviewing this album. Although I would not completely rule out the possibility that some listeners might be missing the musical coherency of I've Started, So I'll Finish, I found it varied, musically demanding, captivating, complex yet accessible. Simply unique. It requires repetitive careful listening to familiarise with. I've started to get involved with this band and this review without ever having heard anything by and of Fearful Symmetry, so I'll finish this review by stating that it definitely was worthwhile having done that. Highly recommended.
Mattias Risbergs Mining XL — Mining At Fasching and Elsewhere
Owen Davies
Live albums are probably no substitute for attending a live show, but they give an overall impression of what it might have been like to experience that performance. This is particularly useful if there is no visual record of the concert like perhaps a Warchild / Minstrel In The Gallery era Jethro Tull show. Luckily, an officially released live audio of that era of Tull now exists.
Live albums are arguably also a useful substitute if an artist does not perform anywhere near your location. Since a move to rural Scotland some six years ago, this has become increasingly relevant for me.
Mattias Risbergs Mining X1 did a short tour of Sweden in 2024. The gigs were recorded and a live album has emerged. Mining At Fasching and Elsewhere provides a fascinating insight into the ensembles music and gives hints of what it might have been like to have attended one of their shows.
The music is tightly spun (I suppose it had to be with an ensemble of 15 players), but there are numerous occasions when improvisation takes place. Female vocals both wordless and scripted are used to good effect. The fine singing of Jennie Abrahamson delivers a range of moods and melodies. The ensemble is highly skilled and the performance has a live exuberance and polished ambience.
Several influences can be discerned. These include many nods to Frank Zappa and his work on albums such as Waka Jawaka and to some extent The Grand Wazoo where tunes like Cletus Awreetus-Awrightus seem to have been an inspiration.
The extensive use of a vibraphone and spoken recitations in the release serves to emphasise this general comparison to some of the soundscapes created by Zappa.
Other influences that I could discern were some aspects of the adventurous approach to jazz and rock that emerged with Miles Davis. There were also times when I was reminded of the work of bands as diverse as Ikarus, World Service Project and Kuhn Fu. The music was by turns graceful, energetic. It was occasionally minimalist and frequently expansive and cinematic, and by contrast, it was regularly full of potent dynamism with many solos.
In this respect special mention should be made of bassist Dan Berglund a guitarist David Stackenas. Berglund's solo in Ping Pong was particularly engaging, and Stackenas extended solo during Red Ponds was also gratifying.
There were several occasions when Berglunds rich tones dominated proceedings with a vibrant flurry of low-end resonance. Similarly, the tones chosen by Stackenas were just right for the music. Sometimes strident, but always elegant. They provided just enough grit and fervour to propel some of the extended passages and offered a great point of contrast to Risbergs excellent keyboard embellishments and the counter-melodies of the brass and woodwind players.
Mattias Risbergs Mining At Fasching has great sound quality. The album is generally satisfying, although I found the spoken word parts unnecessary. Nevertheless, the album is a faithful reproduction of what this group of accomplished musicians was able to create on stage.
The music may not appeal to most DPRP readers , but if you want to experience what it might be like to attend a Mining XL concert, then Mining at Fasching does just that and more!
Syrek — Story 2
Edwin Roosjen
In all my reviewing years I never had such an easy job as with this review. In 2021 Syrek released an album called Story and now four years later we have the album Story 2. The core band has the same musicians and the style of music and construction of the new album is identical to the previous album. When reading the review on Story written by my DPRP colleague, I can simply say that I totally agree with it. And I have exactly the same opinion about this new album Story 2. End of story.
But that would be just a bit too easy. So let me elaborate a bit.
The core musicians on the Syrek albums are impressive, each in their own right. Terry Syrek (guitar), Marco Minnemann (drums), Lalle Larsson (keys/synths) and Bryan Beller (bass). The bass duties are shared with Mohini Dey, and we have Erik Rydvall on nyckelharpa. Just like the previous album, Story 2 is an instrumental album with narration provided by Keith Szarabajka.
Story 2 starts like a fairytale with gentle sounds and the narrative voice bringing the story line. With Adventureoverature the music kicks in and the bombardment of notes has started. Heavy technical progressive metal with shredding guitars all over the place. From this point onwards the album alternates between mellow parts, heavy shredding guitars and some fairytale narrative parts.
Each song has its own hook. Set Sail By Bottle has a more complex jazzy structure and Snow? Snow! is fast and heavy, The Battle Of Lumlin Homlet has some dramatic parts, and the longest song Citadel has a lot of fast keyboard soloing.
It is hard to make it till the end of the album in one spin because at times it is such a bombardment of notes. Great music but at times it is very technical high speed guitar shredding and you really got to like that when listening to Syrek.
Story 2 is another fine album by Syrek and is a perfect continuation of his previous album Story. Just like that previous album Story 2 is not an album to just give a gentle listen. The music of Syrek is just all over the place. Over seventy-seven minutes, Story 2 is filled with complex heavy progressive metal with an occasional room to catch your breath when the narration kicks in. Technically all is perfect, and that is what is to be expected with a top-notch line-up like this.
Until Zen — The Grip
Martin Burns
Québec City quartet Until Zen have released their debut album The Grip and what a terrific album it is. A heavy prog workout with elements from New Wave Of British Heavy metal and 70s hard rock underpinning the prog deftly. Helped by a superb mix and production, every instrumental and vocal twist can be followed with ease and it needs to be as there is plenty of meat here to get your teeth into. They use contrasting quiet/loud dynamics with a light touch and is possibly the best album of its kind that I've had the joy of listening to since Elders Innate Passage albeit without the psychedelic aspects of Elder.
Until Zen start with Collapsing. It opens with the keyboard strings of Marc-André Morency joined by the rolling percussion of Louis Fortin (also on acoustic guitars, keyboards) then bass throbs and slide guitar floats through. They are joined by the strong and controlled vocals of keyboardist Marc-André Morency. He has a touch of Marillion's Steve Hogarth but the power of a metal singer. The track switches to heavy prog riffs, and there is a heartfelt guitar solo as well. I would like to give credit to the player, but Until Zen have two guitarists. Micheal Bouchard and Jonathan Blanchette are credited with electric guitars, acoustic guitar, bass guitars, and keyboards between them, and no differentiation is made in line with the bands democratic ethos.
This opener sets out Until Zen's stall. Each track switches and changes around with details and small tweaks to the sound that just brings focus to the high-quality songwriting throughout The Grip. The punching hard chords of Live To See The Sun with a long and intricate guitar solo. 70s classic hard rock informs Missing Soul it even, slyly, has a boogie section. For The Sake Of Us is slower but no less intense with acoustic guitar and lovely bass runs.
The last three tracks have them step up their game further. In The Thickest Of Mists's heavy prog has a blues infused guitar solo in its finale. Bass opens Seeds Of Doubt and the bass is wonderful through it, and incidentally the album as a whole. Developing slowly, The Jester's Last Parade is a super closer that just encourages starting listening to the album all over again.
Until Zen's The Grip is a calling card of power, energy, subtlety, and melodic songwriting that bodes will for their future and that of Canadian progressive rock. Easily one of the year's best.