Prognosis – Circa vs. Kristoffer Gildenlöw vs. Colossus

Prognosis – Circa vs. Kristoffer Gildenlöw vs. Colossus

CIRCA
Live from Here There and Everywhere
Glassville

What do you do when you’re not in Yes anymore? Well you form a band with lots of other people who used to be in Yes. Hence, Circa, which at one point counted Tony Kaye, Alan White and latter day Yes man, Billy Sherwood amongst their ranks. At one point, after Alan White left, they even brought in former Toto singer Bobby Kimball and became Yoso for an album and tour. But now they’re back to being Circa again, with Kaye and Sherwood still in the ranks.

So you won’t be at all surprised to learn that Circa are a progressive rock fans wet dream. With four of the tracks here, clocking in at ten minutes plus, there is plenty of room for instrumental showboating, but when the players, who now include Rick Tierney (bass) and Scott Connor (drums) are this good, you really don’t care. And there is no resting on past laurels, as this is no Yes tribute act. Sadly, it’s no Badger tribute act either, but if you want to hear prog rock musos at the peak of their game, you won’t go far wrong on the likes of ‘Remember Along The Way’ and ‘Ever Changing World’.

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KRISTOFFER GILDENLOW
Rust
Glassville

I was never a Pain of Salvation man. I mean, surely, salvation is supposed to be a goof thing. So why would it hurt? And questions like that are enough for me to shun a bands catalogue. But here comes former Pain of Salvation man, Kristoffer Gildenlöw , with a solo album that has taken him six years to record and utilised twenty seven guest musicians. Which seems a tad excessive seeing as how Spider could record an entire album in about forty minutes.

But then they weren’t dealing in fragile, dark and melancholic ambient prog dealing with youth, growing old, death and finding peace in life. No they were only interested in rock and / or roll. But would the likes of Ruud Jolie (Within Temptation), Fredrik Hermansson (ex Pain of Salvation), Ola Hedén (ex Flower Kings) appeared on “Rock’n’Roll Gypsies”? I don’t think so. No, this is more aimed at that slightly left of centre market where the likes of Blackfield, Ambeon and Anathema reside.

So it’s ballad central, with swathes of atmosphere encompassing songs such as ‘Follow Me Down’, ‘Save My Soul’ and ‘Living Soil’. It’s out in a plethora of formats including limited edition vinyl which looks rather nice, with 9 songs on coloured vinyl, a double fold out gatefold and an 8 page book. But you get more music on the CD with two extra tunes. It’s a good one, so go get some.

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COLOSSUS
Wake
Perennity Records

Blimey, it’s like 1972 never happened, and we’re still mired in an alternative universe where Blue Cheer won the metal wars, and music took a different course. Although, to be fair, this is more Warhorse than it is Blue Cheer.

But over in Sweden, they don’t care about such niceties. Instead they get on with spinning some muscular, psychedelic riffs which make Monster Magnet look like babies shaking a rattle. It sounds huge, which may have been assisted by the mix from Pontus Norgren, and they’ve even brought in a couple of guests to help out in the shape of Lars G Petrov of Entombed on vocals and former Frank Zappa drummer Morgan Ågren. But it’s really about the riff, and straight from the opening ‘A Stir From Slumber’ you get the feeling that your bowels may loosen at any time.

The best of the lot is ‘Pillars Of Perennity’ which features Lars G Petrov from Entombed on vocals. Understandably it sees them take a slight detour into the world of melodic death metal, but it retains their sludgy stoner sound. As debut albums go, this should perk up a few ears, and see Colossus start to live up to their name.

Circa trailer: