Welsh prog unit Magenta are about to get medieval on your ass! In quite a literal sense as their new album, their tenth(?), studio recording Tarot is inspired by the the band Renaissance, who have always been a huge influence to main writer Rob Reed. So with this being their 25th Anniversary as a band they do a bit of retrospection to their debut album Revolutions where the inspiration of Renaissance, Yes and the UK Neo-Prog acts like Marillion and Pendragon impacted the style of the band on that debut record.
Since that debut they have added all sorts of elements to the band from alternative rock, symphonic cinematics, massive conceptual pieces, heavy rock and more, but it seems that with this milestone in their history coming up, the idea of this record was to bring it all back to where they began, one distinct style based around the Neo-Prog journeying of Renaissance, et al.
Basing the songs on the characters that appear on Tarot cards, with four folksy Études splitting their labyrinthine cuts, featuring flute from Katie Axelsen and oboe from Sam Baxter, some harpsichords and a lot of Nylon string guitar fit for Henry VIII’s court. Those nylon strings and soaring, expressive lead guitar moments are still the reserve of Chris Fry, who plays with feeling, emotion and virtuoso skill, throwing in Gilmourisms, Hackett classicism and even a bit of jazz on The Empress.
The rest of the instrumentation meanwhile come from Rob Reed who plays the keys, organs, synths, piano, rhythm guitar, the ever present guitar which is high up in the mix like it should be and even some recorder for more folking. Though he doesn’t provide the drums, so it’s a good job they have all round tub thumper extraordinaire Nick D’Virgilio to do that in between his stints with Big Big Train and Steve Hackett.
Reed has also said that this is the first album he’s written explicitly for singer Christina Booths voice, and she gives a brilliantly emotive performance, perfectly pitched for the romantic notions of the past and fate explored on this album, joined on the gospel tinged title track by Peter Jones and Steve Balsamo. Tarot plays the cards out in the open, with a record of brilliantly delivered prog rock that sees Magenta in nostalgic and celebratory mood after a quarter of a century. 9/10
Sugar Horse – Not A Sound In Heaven (Fat Dracula Records) [Cherie Curtis]
Sugar Horse offers a fresh new perspective on modern metal. Its cinematic, loud and chaotic with the grandeur of a perfect storm.
Since that debut they have added all sorts of elements to the band from alternative rock, symphonic cinematics, massive conceptual pieces, heavy rock and more, but it seems that with this milestone in their history coming up, the idea of this record was to bring it all back to where they began, one distinct style based around the Neo-Prog journeying of Renaissance, et al.
Basing the songs on the characters that appear on Tarot cards, with four folksy Études splitting their labyrinthine cuts, featuring flute from Katie Axelsen and oboe from Sam Baxter, some harpsichords and a lot of Nylon string guitar fit for Henry VIII’s court. Those nylon strings and soaring, expressive lead guitar moments are still the reserve of Chris Fry, who plays with feeling, emotion and virtuoso skill, throwing in Gilmourisms, Hackett classicism and even a bit of jazz on The Empress.
The rest of the instrumentation meanwhile come from Rob Reed who plays the keys, organs, synths, piano, rhythm guitar, the ever present guitar which is high up in the mix like it should be and even some recorder for more folking. Though he doesn’t provide the drums, so it’s a good job they have all round tub thumper extraordinaire Nick D’Virgilio to do that in between his stints with Big Big Train and Steve Hackett.
Reed has also said that this is the first album he’s written explicitly for singer Christina Booths voice, and she gives a brilliantly emotive performance, perfectly pitched for the romantic notions of the past and fate explored on this album, joined on the gospel tinged title track by Peter Jones and Steve Balsamo. Tarot plays the cards out in the open, with a record of brilliantly delivered prog rock that sees Magenta in nostalgic and celebratory mood after a quarter of a century. 9/10
Sugar Horse – Not A Sound In Heaven (Fat Dracula Records) [Cherie Curtis]
Sugar Horse offers a fresh new perspective on modern metal. Its cinematic, loud and chaotic with the grandeur of a perfect storm.
Not A Sound In Heaven brings thunderous instrumentals and heavy breakdowns with their own spin by carefully sprinkling in some euphoric harmonised choruses and highly technical beats. Sugar Horse’s title track, Not A Sound In Heaven, is a light and airy with glorious technical symphonies without the harsh metal vocals of the rest of the album that’s more to serve the concept while capturing the atmosphere.
All throughout you’re being pushed pillar to post by the vocal range between soft and harsh with hardcore bone shaking metal vocal sustains complimented by hard-hitting drums giving the album a modern-day alt rock twist. Sugar Horse is an interesting fever dream and not at all what i expected, i found myself on the fence a couple of times before being drawn back in by complex dynamic builds of intensity that makes for a well-articulated piece.
Overall, this one is strong and wondrous. It won’t get you into a moshpit but I don’t think it’s supposed to as for me, it’s an album to accompany you on a moody day and the vibe feels summery yet pessimistic, allowing you to fester in melancholy comfortably. 7/10
Dimwind – The Carrion Waltz (Self Release) [Mark Young]
Entering the arena with an album that moves with ease and grace between different musical approaches is Sweden’s Dimwind. They are one of those bands where you can give them a tag, say ‘post metal’ or ‘progressive’ or ‘sludge’ and it doesn’t really tell the full story of what they sound like or indeed what one can expect from them. They can be a lot of things to a lot of people; such is the spectrum they ride with The Carrion Waltz.
Again, like a lot of my reviews this represents my first time with them, and as I understand it sees them add a vocalist to the mix in order to expand further. What is apparent is that the music behind the vocal lines still has priority in terms of how it lands with you. If you imagine a Mastodon where the style moves from person to person, and as a result it is changing because of that, its exactly what you get here.
Dimwind – The Carrion Waltz (Self Release) [Mark Young]
Entering the arena with an album that moves with ease and grace between different musical approaches is Sweden’s Dimwind. They are one of those bands where you can give them a tag, say ‘post metal’ or ‘progressive’ or ‘sludge’ and it doesn’t really tell the full story of what they sound like or indeed what one can expect from them. They can be a lot of things to a lot of people; such is the spectrum they ride with The Carrion Waltz.
Again, like a lot of my reviews this represents my first time with them, and as I understand it sees them add a vocalist to the mix in order to expand further. What is apparent is that the music behind the vocal lines still has priority in terms of how it lands with you. If you imagine a Mastodon where the style moves from person to person, and as a result it is changing because of that, its exactly what you get here.
The difference here is that Dimwind are writing with a vigour and energy that has been missing from Mastodon. That is a different conversation so getting back on track I’ll just point you in the direction of the melodic change in the main verse of opening track The Chime. It’s a little touch but something that in the whole scheme of the song makes a massive difference to me in how I respond to it. It’s a massive way to start things off, its one of those songs where they have a lot to say, and they give it the space to unfold. Its closing moments are triumphant, moving forward in a perceived wave of positive melodic lines.
As strong as that opening statement is, there is no time for resting, with My Uninvited Host trampling all underfoot, mixing groove in with its crushing arrangement. It suddenly comes to a halt, reaching backwards to lighten the mood. You know its not staying there for long and it starts to punch forward in the most satisfying way. Lovers of the riff will be at home here because its filled to the brim with them. Again, check out the closing minute or so for a prime example of this.
They have a definite knack of being able to meld good riffs with abrasive vocals and still sound like a moment of beauty. The Antagonists Speech, circa 2minutes in or Counterglow, where they gently apply the brakes and just relax for a while during the mid-point. I’m not just saying that these are relative high points, just examples within each. They balance heavy and soft in a way that seems intuitive, at least to them.
They have a definite knack of being able to meld good riffs with abrasive vocals and still sound like a moment of beauty. The Antagonists Speech, circa 2minutes in or Counterglow, where they gently apply the brakes and just relax for a while during the mid-point. I’m not just saying that these are relative high points, just examples within each. They balance heavy and soft in a way that seems intuitive, at least to them.
What this means as a listener is that we are spoiled from start to finish. I appreciate that is quite the statement, but from my perspective it’s the truth. I’m not quite sold on the whole post-metal thing, I suppose its because Its not thrash metal, but I’m not going to sit and say that this is poor because it’s not played at a 1000mph. Its an album that has moments of stark beauty to it.
You only have to listen to it to understand that, even I can hear it. I mentioned that audio kinship with Mastodon, where they share that similar ability to turn on a sixpence within a song. Here, they do it two or more times, and they land it every time.
The closer, Absorbing The Infinite Impermanence is magnificent in how it develops, building itself until it gets to the end. Looking at those pesky tags, yes, they are all of those things, I don’t think you or they could argue with that. But to pigeonhole them to those tags, well I think you would be missing the point. 8/10
Nick Oliveri – N.O Hits At All Vol 10 (Heavy Psych Sounds) [Joe Guatieri]
There is no other way to say it, Nick Oliveri is one of my favourite musicians of all time. The man has played a big part in so many bands that I love like Kyuss and Queens Of The Stone Age and has even more projects and collaborations that he’s put his name to. With his own band Mondo Generator, they have hit a height of consistency in fantastic releases also.
Today we’ll be diving into Nick’s long running series of compilations, N.O. Hits At All, which covers songs that he’s been a part of throughout his career. I have previously reviewed the last two releases, volumes 8 and 9 which I really enjoyed, how will it fare with volume 10?
The record opens with Luv Is Fiction, a track that sees Nick singing over a song which doesn’t know whether it’s Hair Metal or Hardcore Punk. The song revolves around a riff that sounds like vanilla Rage Against The Machine, yeah it’s bouncy but it doesn’t go anywhere and ends up being uninspired. The chorus has what sounds like back-up singers with headbands on all singing into the same microphone whilst Nick is up front. It doesn’t match his style whatsoever and has no bite to it.
Track two presents us with Up And Down Under which is a much more welcome addition here. The instruments swirl together like a tornado with punchy drums and a smooth bass. Its classic Stoner Rock stylings stand out from being derivative as there is a big emphasis on attack in the song and thanks to its use of dynamics, it feels like that it’s forever moving forwards, capturing people in its groove.
This is where my frustrations with this album come to boiling point as with the next not two but six tracks, they have all been used as part of the N.O. Hits At All series before. This is beyond disappointment and utter laziness on Nick Oliveri’s part. All he had to do was type in the songs already and seen that he had picked them before, even on the last fucking release with one of them! No wonder why they started sounding so familiar as I have heard them all before.
There is one more song on here which hasn’t been on a compilation and this is track nine with Bad Boy For Love. It’s a classic acoustic song in Nick’s style, a weird psychedelic synth hums in the background as the guitar sends us off to space. Then all that’s good goes to shit again, as the next two songs have once again been used on previous compilations.
Three original songs to volume 10 is a joke, it’s so much more than just an admin error, it lacks any sort of common sense and feels like a blatant lie. The song Lockdown is the most egregious, it was previously used on volume 1 and it makes me want to tear my hair out, HOW?!
Nick Oliveri – N.O Hits At All Vol 10 (Heavy Psych Sounds) [Joe Guatieri]
There is no other way to say it, Nick Oliveri is one of my favourite musicians of all time. The man has played a big part in so many bands that I love like Kyuss and Queens Of The Stone Age and has even more projects and collaborations that he’s put his name to. With his own band Mondo Generator, they have hit a height of consistency in fantastic releases also.
Today we’ll be diving into Nick’s long running series of compilations, N.O. Hits At All, which covers songs that he’s been a part of throughout his career. I have previously reviewed the last two releases, volumes 8 and 9 which I really enjoyed, how will it fare with volume 10?
The record opens with Luv Is Fiction, a track that sees Nick singing over a song which doesn’t know whether it’s Hair Metal or Hardcore Punk. The song revolves around a riff that sounds like vanilla Rage Against The Machine, yeah it’s bouncy but it doesn’t go anywhere and ends up being uninspired. The chorus has what sounds like back-up singers with headbands on all singing into the same microphone whilst Nick is up front. It doesn’t match his style whatsoever and has no bite to it.
Track two presents us with Up And Down Under which is a much more welcome addition here. The instruments swirl together like a tornado with punchy drums and a smooth bass. Its classic Stoner Rock stylings stand out from being derivative as there is a big emphasis on attack in the song and thanks to its use of dynamics, it feels like that it’s forever moving forwards, capturing people in its groove.
This is where my frustrations with this album come to boiling point as with the next not two but six tracks, they have all been used as part of the N.O. Hits At All series before. This is beyond disappointment and utter laziness on Nick Oliveri’s part. All he had to do was type in the songs already and seen that he had picked them before, even on the last fucking release with one of them! No wonder why they started sounding so familiar as I have heard them all before.
There is one more song on here which hasn’t been on a compilation and this is track nine with Bad Boy For Love. It’s a classic acoustic song in Nick’s style, a weird psychedelic synth hums in the background as the guitar sends us off to space. Then all that’s good goes to shit again, as the next two songs have once again been used on previous compilations.
Three original songs to volume 10 is a joke, it’s so much more than just an admin error, it lacks any sort of common sense and feels like a blatant lie. The song Lockdown is the most egregious, it was previously used on volume 1 and it makes me want to tear my hair out, HOW?!
This is a plea to Nick Oliveri himself. You can still make wonderful music that I connect with but please stop with N.O. Hits At All before it’s N.O Fans At All. This isn’t a celebration, it’s starvation! 1/10
