Reviews roundup – Fraise ~ No Such Season ~ Chaos Over Cosmos ~Mountain’s Foot ~ Mental Season
FRAISE
The Fifth Sun
Distrosong
It’s album number five from the Swedish power metal act who first emerged, blinking, into the light of 2002.
It is, however, their first concept album. A concept that involve a fictional persons journey through life and how they are affected by the outside during their most vulnerable moments. In the protagonists case this involves meditation in the city of Santasia whereas I’m swelling David Beckhams healthy bank balance with lashings of Haig Club Clubman.
Musically it’s traditional power metal. So you can hear hints of Savatage, Judas Priest and Axel Rudi Pell in their music. But they’re not ripping anyone off. They’re filtering it to produce their own take on the genre. When they have the songs to match as they do on “Wake Up Shining”, “Be One Of Us” and “Twin Of My Soul” they can hold their heads high amongst the power metal heavy hitters.
The guitar work is uniformly excellent from Fredrik Falkerstedt who can shred and solo with the best of them and even though a couple of tunes halfway through let down the side, there is still plenty here to enjoy. The mix doesn’t really do the band justice so if there are any labels out there looking to throw some money at some power metal, here’s your chance.
NO SUCH SEASON
U.A.F.
Sliptrick Records
Post grunge meets sludge like doom with a punk edge. I’ll give it a go.
Because that’s what you’re getting with American band No Such Season who are, apparently, Underground As Fuck. Which is a shame because most folk aren’t and might well let this one slip by. It’s certainly a record full of anger, angst and emotion as they bludgeon their way through an array of sounds.
Which may well be their downfall. Granted, some people like Pantera, C.O.C., Pearl Jam and Helmet. But they’re few and far between. And when you get to the shouty, semi-rap meets Fugazi meld that is “0300” you may well be wondering whether you’ve accidentally put on an alt-metal compilation album.
Me, I’m an old fashioned kinda fella so when they stick to the more metallic side of things on “Party”, “Giants” and the awesome “Urban Death Groove” then I’m a very happy man indeed. Well, momentarily less depressed. Let’s no get to carried away, aye?
Musically, they’ve definitely got the groove and when the guitars get let off the leash they sound spectacular. One for those of you with dissociative identity disorder.
https://www.facebook.com/nosuchseason
CHAOS OVER COSMOS
The Ultimate Multiverse
Narcoleptica Productions
The internet, eh? Capable of such horrors. Yet sometimes it can be good. Without it would Polish musician / songwriter Rafal Bowman have encountered Australian vocalist Josh Ratcliff? Probably not.
But it did, and they’re back with another helping of prog metal. This actually combines their last two EPs into a whole album so if you did Bandcamp those you might want to check what you’re getting. And if you think there’s a track missing that’s because “We Will Not…” and “Fall” have been combined into, wait for it, “We Will Not Fall”.
First off I have to commend Rafal Bowman on actually managing to make sampled drums sound listenable. You can count on the fingers of one finger how often that works. He’s responsible for all the music which is a bit show offy but he’s a dab hand at firing out some fine guitar riffs and proggy synth lines. Ratcliff, meanwhile, brings a clean / screamo vocal approach to the genre which also works surprisingly well. It would be nothing, though, without some decent tunes and there are plenty of those here.
There is a lot of aggression here which at times almost leads to metalcore which makes for an interesting mix of sounds. If you were looking for one to tune to encapsulate where they’ve set up camp then take a listen to “Consumed” which showcases everything they’re capable of over 8 minutes. The guitars are a constant highlight but when you suddenly get a 1984-ish synth swoosh it made me go all wobbly.
It might fall between several stools – too proggy for the metallers, to metallic for the proggy – but whichever camp you’re in, you should certainly give it a go.
https://chaosovercosmos.bandcamp.com
MOUNTAIN’S FOOT
Mountain’s Foot
Delta Promotion
Off to Italy to meet up with Mountain’s Foot consisting of bassist Fabio Bonomi, lead vocalist and guitarist Matteo Scaringelli, guitarist Mauro Ramozzi and drummer Simone Facchi.
And what they do is southern rock meets jam band meets seventies guitar rock. So now you know.
The chaps involved are all well seasoned individuals with a lot of experience under their belt but this is their debut album as a combination and they really have let their freak flags fly on this one. Things sort of started back in 2016 when Ramozzi and Facchi got together to jam out some ideas. Things went well, they made a few phone calls and Mountain’s Foot was the end result.
And it’s really enjoyable. They’ve taken their seventies influences, thrown in a few Blackberry Smoke licks (check out “Rock’n’Roll Dose”) and ended up with a really fine set of tunes. They’ve got the swagger and they’ve got the licks required for this sort of malarkey and assuming that they can get themselves heard (being a wee bit out of the way from the southern rock heartlands) I reckon that fans of the genre will take them to heart.
They’re certainly not short of tunes that grab a hold with “Little Big Valley Man”, “Always Sick And Tired” and the aforementioned “Rock’n’Roll Dose” out and out winners. Highly recommended.
https://www.facebook.com/mountainsfoot
MENTAL SEASON
Mental Season
Zoundr
To Germany for some melodic crossover prog. And a band with a very timely name. Now they say they’re not really prog but anyone who was listening to Marillion in the mid nineties will find themselves very much at home here.
It’s a debut release although the members of the band have a lot of experience under their belt. They’d played in a covers band for donkeys years before Steve Pritschet (vocals, keyboards, acoustic guitar) , Stefan ‘Ewi’ Kaiser (bass, keyboards, backing vocals), Earny Rehm (guitar) and Chris Ziegelmaier (drums) decided it was time to do their own thing.
It’s incredibly melodic, has moments of complexity combined with choruses you’ll remember for a while and is really well produced. A top job all round in fact. I’m a big fan of the guitar work which just leaps out of the speakers. Take a listen to the opening section of the, um, magnificent 10 minute epic that is “Magnificent Display Pt. 1” and then come back to remonstrate. See. I telt ye. And as a slightly obsessive sunset fan it certainly resonated with me.
Pritschet has a great voice well suited to the material that is on offer and even though there are some lengthy offerings here they flash by. It’s a rare talent and one that is appreciated round here. There are moments where I’m reminded of the Alan Parsons Project and a couple of Kansas flashbacks, along with a few Gilmour / Floyd guitar lines but they mainly stick to the world of what was called neo prog.
I don’t go looking for flaws in a record but there’s usually something that irks. Not here. This is a magnificent release that fans of melodic prog should be clutching to their hearts with passion.
https://www.facebook.com/MentalSeason
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