Fossil Eyes
More reviews to come shortly
May 2009 | Emusic
by ProgNClassicaLover
"Postmodern Masterpiece"
Fossileyes is no less than the latest essential link in the apocalyptic progression which gives "progressive" rock its oft-derided name. Starting with King Crimson, then Henry Cow and the Art Bears, then Thinking Plague and now to The Red Masque, proceding from Crimson's eloquent doom to Cow's doctrinaire cautionairianism to early Plague's altogether more extroverted practicalism (e.g. "How to Clean Squid"), we get "progessively" deeper into the irony of our postmodern age, the oxymoron of which is the only thing preventing Fossileyes from perfection. The doom of postmodernism is simply that there can be no perfection in irony, the inevitable tension of which only adds to the total brilliance of this album. Download NOW !!!!!
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April 2009 | The Squid's Ear
by Joseph Schafer
There was a time long ago when progressive rock meant more than virtuoso musicians, long songs, and the occasional bout of odd time. Recently bands like Tool and Muse have broken into the mainstream with pseudo-prog heavy on listener-friendliness and very light on anything… well… progressive. Sure, the music scene worldwide was once full of innovators like Ruins and King Crimson, bands who genuinely attempted to provide with their music what others in the psychotropic business were providing: a genuinely mind-bending experience.
The Red Masque are taking back the banner of prog on their third full-length FossilEyes. The disc is nearly an hour of unapologetically out-there music with a focus on unorthodox instrumentation and unsettling atmospheres. Information on the band itself can be as obscure as the music, but this much is known for sure: the Philadelphia three piece, led by vocalist Lynette Shelly, have a dedication to throwing rulebooks out of windows. With gothic and virtuosic help from multi-instrumentalist Brandon Ross and percussionist Brian (Koworn) Van Korn, Shelly creates a unique sound and aesthetic equal parts Hammer Horror and zeuhl.
This is not your father’s prog. Melody takes a back seat to mood and dynamics on this album. FossilEyes does use the traditional extended-song prog format, but sports a few extremely short songs; half the album’s tracks clock in at under 2-and-a-half minutes, but these cuts never feel like bridges or interludes. Acoustic and electric guitars mix and match here with reckless abandon until the difference between the two becomes negligible.
The songs slither and lurch from movement to movement much like the animals they are named after. “Das Snail,” one of the strongest cuts on the disc, metamorphoses from an abstract and jazzy arpeggiation to a lumbering, slow-paced monstrosity as it collapses and reforms under the weight of its own melodrama. With the occasional touches of heavy metal present (a la Porcupine Tree) the band firmly plants itself in the hazily defined outer limits of “extreme” music.
The Red Masque employs the use of noise as an instrument, especially on closer “The Anti-Man,” but at no point in time does the music descend into a mere texture of sound. At least one part of the music is clear and distinct, usually the drums, which often take on a folk or tribal character during the noise segments. The music is not emotional, or compelling; the band takes inspiration from their horror movie soundtrack imagery, so they focus on creating an unsettling feeling in the listener. The album succeeds in this endeavor because the music never becomes catchy or repetitive enough to make a deep impact. Instead the songs introduce new motifs and ideas in rapid succession.
Lording over the rest of the music like a dominatrix is Shelly’s voice, which rarely reaches a fragile vulnerability, but normally maintains a baroque howl. Occasionally she descends into Diamanda Galas-like shrieks and orgiastic howls. Her lyrics (when clear enough to understand) are foreboding, but thoughtful. The theme of the album would appear to have something to do with evolution, or the food chain, but most of that takes a back seat to the broad and bold strokes of musical color that The Red Masque paints with.
While the songs do hearken back to the sheer bravado and musical adventure of older prog bands, it falls into the same pitfalls — some of the songs are heavy-handed (see opener “The Spider is the Web”) and get bogged down in the sheer multitude of bridges and transitions. All of the songs, even some of the short ones, are overloaded with time signature changes and guitar freak-outs — it often comes across as forced. The album does not flow, and can feel jagged on the crucial first couple of listens. Still, all is forgiven during the beauty of the album’s climaxes, such as “The Anti-Man” and “Poltphemus,” when the guitar becomes smooth and sensual, and Shelly abandons her actress’ mask in favor of a better role: rock singer. None the less, with personality and punch, Fossil Eyes is an album that takes its listener by the throat and demands to be heard.
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Spring 2009 | Prog Wereld
by Frans Schmidt | Read Babelfish translation
The Red Masque is een merkwaardig avant-gardistisch gezelschap uit de omgeving van Philadelphia, dat zichzelf - naar eigen zeggen - al vanaf het prille begin ten doel stelt om muziek te creëren die zelfs de hooggespannen verwachtingen van een veeleisende luisteraar te boven gaat. Het is dan ook om die reden dat ik in de loop van 2004 kennismaak met "Feathers For Flesh", een album dat mijn zintuigen werkelijk prikkelt en derhalve mijn verwachtingspatroon inderdaad te boven gaat.
Opgenomen met gitarist Andrew Kowal in plaats van Kiarash Emami, is de nieuwe plaat, evenals als zijn indrukwekkende voorganger, wederom een veelkleurig allegaartje van allerhande, uiteenlopende muziekstromingen. Ook hier probeert het kwartet immers allerlei genres als artrock, folk, gothic, horror, (post)metal, progressieve rock, psychedelische rock, rock-in-opposition en zeuhl in zijn muziek te verwerken. "Fossil Eyes" zal dan ook ongetwijfeld meerdere draaibeurten nodig hebben voordat het op zijn werkelijke waarde geschat kan worden.
Deze mengeling resulteert in een huiveringwekkende vorm van experimentele, innovatieve muziek die de luisteraar meer dan eens de stuipen op het lijf jaagt. Dit is voornamelijk toe te schrijven aan de even onorthodoxe als excentrieke componeerstijl, die doorgaans dissonante en angstaanjagende instrumentaties in het leven roept. Met een indrukwekkend, niet alledaags instrumentarium weet het kwartet vervolgens deze buitenissige benadering dikwijls te vertalen in aparte arrangementen, merkwaardige melodieën, complexe klanken, sombere stemmingen, zenuwachtige zangpartijen en robuuste riffs.
Meer nog dan "Feathers For Flesh" is dit album dan ook voornamelijk bedoeld voor de veeleisende, avontuurlijk ingestelde muziekliefhebber. Dit sinister, avant-gardistisch kleinood tart, provoceert en daagt me uit, overtreft soms mijn stoutste verbeeldingen en verbaast me in zijn vindingrijkheid. Het intens overdonderende en compromisloze karakter van "Fossil Eyes" wordt echter zelfs mij af en toe teveel, maar dan troost ik me met de gedachte dat ik vast niet de enige zal zijn. Desondanks weet de plaat mij herhaaldelijk te verleiden met een geluid dat zich ergens tussen Guapo, Isis, King Crimson, Magma, Neurosis, Present, Univers Zero en Van Der Graaf Generator ophoudt.
De dikwijls angstaanjagende, soms overweldigende cocktail van naargeestige en onstuimige klanken is al met al vermoedelijk uitsluitend geschikt voor liefhebbers van gepassioneerde, onheilspellende progressieve rock met een hang naar mystiek en occultisme. "Fossil Eyes" is dan ook geenszins een album voor iedereen. Je bent dan ook gewaarschuwd!
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December 2008 | JazzReview.com
by Glenn Astarita
This progressive-rock band hailing from the Philadelphia area partakes in slanted iterations of social consciousness amid elements of the macabre, while seamlessly fusing numerous rock stylizations into its signature sound. With hard-hitting time changes and complex arrangements, the unit purveys hidden meanings under a mysterious veil in concert with guitarist Andrew Kowal’s scathing crunch chords and more.
Featuring Lynette Shelley’s edgy vocals atop the band’s darkly resonating choruses and harrowing background treatments, they morph elements of goth-rock into the big picture. Yet they forge the acoustic component into inferences of highly-electrified notions that ring up dour circumstances. All in good fun mind you, as the quartet projects an interweaving adventure via the occasional King Crimson-like metrics, chock full of odd-metered pulses and avant-rock style breakdowns.
On the pieces titled “Lost in the Petrified Forest” and “The Hive,” the musicians fuse an apocalyptic state of affairs into an endless void, largely teeming with cartoonish imagery. Then with the album finale “The Anti-Man (Not Afraid),” they instill a sense of prog-rock barbarism, complement by off-kilter phrasings, chunka-chunka guitar parts, layered keys and shadowy effects. No doubt, the artists offer a scintillating sequence of mind-bending propositions that adds to the overall excitement. Its all supplemented by their top-notch musicianship and shrewdly enacted line of attack.
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Bandnavnet i seg selv gir oss næring til hemmelighetsfulle grøssere i Edgar Alan Poe og H.P. Lovecraft sitt univers. Red Masque gestalter hardhet, mørke og en bisarr lydverden i en RIO setting. ”Fossileyes” er skive nummer tre fra amerikanerne, og denne er mer sangorientert og strukturert enn forgjengerne. Låtene er også gjennomgående kortere, men man kan også se alle 11 sporene som en låt som er delt i kortere deler. Årsaken er at låtene flyter naturlig over i hverandre, med en intensitet og et sug som er herlig. Her får vi stemningsfulle hyl, typisk og tøff bass fra Zeuhl tematikken, dundrende riff og pulserende marerittlyd på en knallbra måte. Heftige saker, som helt klart krever sin lytter fulle oppmerksomhet. På ” The Spider Is The Web” er det masse pinsler og kvaler, og kanskje noen har glemt å lukke døren til helvete, hvor noen stakkarer blir pint og plaget. En tett og ugjennomtrengelig stemning på denne låten, og usedvanlig hard gitar, langt inne i metallriffenes verden. Følelsen av å bli ”pakket inne av lyd” er overveldende, og vi er nær ved å få en overdose musikk. Dette er ikke ulikt i uttrykk (ikke musikk) hva Tool holder på med på sitt mest intense. En åpningslåt som setter standarden, og hvor senere låter som ”Carbon 14” og ” Das Snail”” også har mye av de samme kvaliteter. Begge låtene kan beskrives som Van Der Graaf Generator møter Isis møter Magma. Forrige skives “Feathers For Flesh” åpningslåt, House Of Ash” hadde også samme ekstreme uttrykk, og skaper derfor en kontinuitet skivene imellom. Red Masque lager ekseperimentrock som henter fra freak-folk, Zeuhl, psykedelia, spcerock og krautrock for å nevne noen. De klarer å sette alle disse bitene sammen til et hele som er konsist, selvbevist og med stor egenart. For eksempel er ”Hive” er bisart stykke musikk, hvor elektroniske effekter skaper et strålende marerittlandskap hvor du føler deg omgitt av millioner av elektroniske bier. Vellykket så det holder, men selvsagt er ikke alt i den klassen. Enkelte spor blir lovelig anmassende, og noen lydcollager virker direkte feilplassert. På plussiden er stemmen til Lynnette Shelley som kort sagt er formidable, og passer ypperlig til Red Masque sin musikk. Sterk og følsom men også pågående og skreddersydd for å kreere Red Masque sine stemninger. Sistesporet ” The Anti-Man” har fylde og tygde fra harde gitarer og heftig tromming på den en siden, mens den andre siden konsentrer seg om masse uhyggefornemmelser. Låten har episk lengde 12,43 og kaster seg ut i nesten doom terreng! Masse og variert instrumentasjon vil nok glede progelskerne som liker det heavy og er en av de sterkeste låtene fra Masque noensinne. Produksjonen av Vonorn er meget bra, og han skaper det bombastiske soundet, men også et mørkt og illevarslende sound på de mer rolige partiene. Svært spennende musikk dette, men nok mest for de som kan eller vil bruke mye tid til å lytte.
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December 2008 | Délire Actuel, CFLX-FM, Sherbrooke, Quebec
Sherbrooke, December 30, 2008: The demanding music radio show Délire Actuel
(CFLX-FM, Sherbrooke, Quebec) unveiled today its top 30 experimental music
albums you shouldn't have missed in 2008. This list culls 30 titles, the
2008 crème de la crème in demanding music, i.e. the avant-gardist or
experimental fringe in every music genre (contemporary, avant-garde jazz,
free improvisation, avant-rock, electronica, etc.).
"What I call demanding music covers the notions of experimental music,
avant-garde music, innovative music, musique actuelle, etc.," explained
François Couture, producer of the show. "Obviously, I haven't heard
everything released in 2008! So, I am not pretending that these are THE best
records of the year, but they are MY best 30 records of the year. And, since
they were selected from somewhere around 550 submissions, I hope that the
artists and record labels can find a little pride in appearing on this Top
30."
Délire Actuel's 2008 Demanding Music Top 30
Reference Format: Artist Title Label
Alphabetical order within 5-rank slices.
Top 30
Aardvark Jazz Orchestra American Agonistes Leo
Fennesz Black Sea Touch
Esposito, Michael - Leif Elggren - Emanuel Swedenborg The
Summerhouse Fireworks Edition
Pinhas, Richard - Merzbow Keio Line Cuneiform
Zorn, John (Secret Chiefs 3) Book of Angels, Vol. 9 : Xaphan
Tzadik
Top 25
Carrier, François - Michel Lambert - Jean -Jacques Avenel Within
Leo
Grimaud, Dominique Les Quatre Directions Locust
Ka-Spel, Edward Dream Logik, Part Two
Beta-lactam Ring
Smith, Wadada Leo Tabligh Cuneiform
Van Schouwburg, Jean-Michel - Kris Vanderstraeten - Jean Demey
Sureau Creative Sources
Top 20
Ellis, Lisle Sucker Punch Requiem: An Homage to Jean-Michel
Basquiat Henceforth
Fujii, Satoko Trace a River Libra
Hue - Circum Bai Hat Circum Disc
Ikeda, Ryoji Test Pattern Raster-Noton
Rothkamm, Frank Just 3 Organs Flux
Top 15
Ensemble SuperMusique Y'a du bruit dans ma cabane
Ambiances Magnétiques
Harrison, Jonty Environs empreintes DIGITALes
Red Masque, The Fossil Eyes Ad Hoc
Tape Luminarium Häpna
Transvalue Book III ThankYou
Top 10
Braxton, Anthony - Milford Graves - WIlliam Parker Beyond Quantum
Tzadik
Chaton, Anne James - Andy Moor Le journaliste
Unsounds
Fond of Tigers Release the Saviours Drip Audio
Foster, Josephine This Coming Gladness Bo¹Weavil
Furt Plus Equals Psi
Top 5
Archer, Martin In Stereo Gravity Discus
Galerie Stratique Faux World Statik
Mezei, Szilard Nád/Reed Red Toucan
Szilard Mezei Ensemble
Poules, Les Phénix Ambiances magnétiques
Un Festin Sagittal Epitafio a la permanencia
Beta-lactam Ring Black Series
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October 2008 | The History of Rock Music
by Piero Scaruffi
Red Masque is a Philadelphia-based group inspired to the classics of progressive-rock. Vocalist Lynnette Shelley and bassist Brandon Ross were part of the original line-up that debuted with the EP Death of the Red Masque (2001).
Half of Victoria and the Haruspex (2002) was taken up by the 24-minute improvised jam Haruspex.
Feathers for Flesh (2004) upped the ante with its four lengthy suites: House of Ash (12.07), Passage (14.12), Yellow Are His Opening Eyes (14.47), and Beggars & Thieves (9.38).
Fossil Eyes (ReR, 2008), recorded by a quartet with drummer and keyboardist Brian Van Korn and guitarist Andrew Kowal, focuses on shorter, albeit no less cerebral, songs. The Spider is the Web creates a dense molasse of operatic singing and forceful bass lines. Carbon 14, that begins with the magniloquence of a Broadway musical, displays an intriguing counterpoint of structured and chaotic sections. The aggressive Polyphemus, with refracted and multiplied vocals, is a charming detour. Metamorphosis is too short at two minutes, and deserved more (absolute instrumental chaos). The 13-minute The Anti-Man has a more conventional structure despite its convoluted narrative ups and downs.
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September 2008 | Sea of Tranquility
Reviewed by Peter Pardo
You never quite know what you're going to get with Phiadelphia's The Red Masque. This band loves to throw curveball after curveball at the listener with each release, drawing upon influences that cover the gamut of progressive rock, gothic, psychedelic, classic rock, and avant-garde styles. Their latest Fossil Eyes, and first for ReR/Ad Hoc Records, is no exception.
Opening track "The Spider is the Web" kicks things off in spectacular fashion, a beefy, almost 'metal' tinged rocker that is like a head on collision between Van Der Graaf Generator, Magma, and Isis, Brandon Lord Ross' humongous bass lines driving the arrangement while the slithery, crawling guitar licks from Andrew Kowal add that psychedelic edge. Lead singer Lynnette Shelley adds in her ominous vocals on the creepy "Carbon 14", another aggressive number with rumbling bass and crunchy guitars, with the tricky stick work of drummer Vonorn providing plenty of jazzy underpinnings to this otherwise heavy and foreboding track. After the haunting & brief instrumental "Gliese", the band comes back with "Das Snail", a chaotic slice of avant-garde mayhem, dissonant guitars slashing across the mix above crashing drum work from Vonorn, Shelley painting the landscape with her intoxicating storytelling, much like a female Jim Morrison. On this one, the band is quite effective jumping from soft interludes to loud chaos. Another short instrumental, the spacey "The Worm", bridges the gap to "Carbon 13", a perfect soundtrack to your worst nightmare, complete with distorted bass lines, squawking guitars, noisy drums blasts, and Shelley's maniacal rantings. There's a certain King Crimson meets Jefferson Airplane meets Captain Beefheart feel to this one, making it quite an intriguing listening experience. After a couple of shorter, effects laden pieces, the band tears into "Polyphemus", a track littered with bulbuous bass, lots of wild effects created by keyboards, theremin, and guitars, and Lynnette's mysterious vocals. After the downright spooky "Metamorphosis", the epic finale "The Anti-Man (Not Afraid)" crashes out of the gate in almost doom metal fashion, Shelley's vocals almost defiant against heavy guitar & bass riffs and Vonorn's thunderous drum barrage. Lots of twisting and weaving instrumentation on this one, a heavy prog lovers dream, and easily one of the strongest songs to date from The Red Masque discography.
Lyrically, this is some pretty intense and dense stuff, and makes for interesting reading as you are listening to the demanding music that the band has created here (full lyrics are included). Nice job on the overall production by Vonorn, making Fossil Eyes a very bombastic sounding CD at times, yet dark and ominous when needed during the quieter moments. Due to the heavier nature of some of these songs, I can see Fossil Eyes appealing to the non-prog crowd as well, which should be a good thing as this band has been paying their dues for a few years now and seem like they are ready to be accepted by a larger audience willing to give their unique style a listen.
4 1/2 stars out of 5
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September 2008 | KFJC, 89.7 FM, Los Altos, California
Reviewed by humana
Avant Rock/Psychedelic: This is plain weird and therefore great. Hailing from Philadelphia and featuring boss bass and electric guitar by Vonorn [edit, bass by Brandon Ross, guitars by Vonorn and Andrew Kowal] and rich vocals from Lynnette Shelley, Red Masque offers a unique array of tracks with ultra-cool and creepy lyrics touching on themes such as Polyphemus moths, spiders, snails, and carbon’s role in dating fossils. The music here is intense, varied, and ranging from folk to Old World accordion to horror soundscapes to all-out brilliant rockouts with psyche guitar solos. This will appeal to many. Bravo! Picks: 2, 9, 11, 1. PGM: Almost all songs end around :02.
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September 2008 | Philadelphia City Paper
by A.D. Amorosi
...the dynamic prog-manic Red Masque, whose new CD Fossil Eyes is like cramming 1,000 King Crimson bootlegs into one mystical intriguing whole.
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August 2008 | SquidCo.
Marrying chamber rock prowess with heavy crimson-cow-esque drama and power, The Red Masque create a complex journey through 11 songs. The band is technically impressive and studio savvy, as it shows through the use of effects, sudden but sensical transitions, and just plain interesting and well crafted songs. Lynnette Shelley's vocals are authoritative, though make take a bit to get used to: she's powerful and articulate, with an accent that would work well for both Lydia Lunch and on a Zappa doo-wop. Red Masque is, no doubt, thick, heavy rock, in a similar vein to Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, but without that band's uniquely twisted sense of humor. This is serious stuff, with a resolute focus on the music itself. And that makes for a release that rewards and reveals itself more with each listen.
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August 2008 | Wayside Music
Fourth album for this band. They manage to sound rough-hewn in an attractive way, while executing some pretty interesting/complex musical maneuvers in a way similar to The Work, although they don't sound like them. I found parts of this reminiscent of Art Bears, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and Maudlin of the Well among others, but they never actually sound like any of these bands either.
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June 2008 | Prog Archives
by Assaf Vestin
The Red Masque – the name alone conjures up in my mind images of mystery tales and horror stories a-la Edgar Alan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. The foursome that makes up The Red Masque fills my imaginary world with sounds that fit these very well with their dark, heavy, thumping and bizarre sound world. With two albums (which I love) and one EP to their record they continue their musical path with this new offering entitled Fossil Eyes. This time around, there are more songs than on Feathers For Flesh and those are shorter, but no less effective or impressive. In fact, one might listen to this as a one continuous song separated into several shorter parts as the mood and sounds persist throughout this release and due to the natural sense of flow that links the songs very well together. Zeuhlish bass, nightmarish throbbing sound (in a good way!), desperate evocative cries, heavy guitar riffs; these are still here and even more emphasized than before.
The first song (and not only it) continues the sound found in the opening of House Of Ash which opened Feathers For Flesh. That tormented sound that makes me feel someone has unlocked the door to hell and all the cries of the damned souls are coming through the open gates. The guitar sounds a lot heavier this time around, almost metal-ic at times. Indeed, the overall atmosphere is very “heavy” and dense. I feel overwhelmed after listening to this as if I’ve overdosed with music; highly intense. It feels to me as if walls of sounds are closing in on me from all sides and I’m in the middle unable to escape them. It reminds me somewhat of the listening experience I have with Tool (it doesn’t sound like them; I just want to point out the effect the music has on me). This style continues in songs like Carbon 14 and Das Snail. The heavy and distorted feel, the bewitching vocals and the eerie mood all create a special ambiance that is found in albums like Guapo’s Five Suns and others of their ilk and add to that a vocalist such as Diamanda Galas and you get an idea of what to expect. To touch on that issue, let me say only that I am at awe with the voice Lynnette possesses. It matches the power of all the other instruments (also thanks to the mixing, but still).
What I respect and like about The Red Masque is that they seem to have created this particular and recognizable sound that while one can (think they) spot their influences and also identify similar bands, it is very much their own. This seemingly chaotic frenzy and anguish; topped with haunting zeuhlish- sounding bass and all-over the place drumming. Twisted would be another word I would use to describe the atmosphere they create. By that I mean, twisted as in a weird horror story where sense and logic are lost and the unnatural world has taken over. The opening song alone gives me this impression with its bone chilling and even “perverse” atmosphere that can easily fit as the soundtrack to an H.P. Lovecraft story (the name will come again here). This, mixed with occasional sense of despair, oozes from most of the songs here. Anger and anguish intertwined. The album also features shorter tracks (1-2 minutes long) which purpose it is (I guess) to create a proper ambience surrounding the songs and creating a connecting and leading thread from one song to the next.
One of the most experimental and bizarre tracks here is The Hive which makes a brilliant use of electronic effects to create exactly what the title suggests; A gorgeous or nightmarish soundscape (depends on how you look at it) which sonically sounds like you’re surrounded with a million electronic bees.
Polyphemus is bewitching. It is an eerie song (keeping up with the rest of the bunch), one that can fit very well into some horror movies (again, not different from the others). A brilliant track, with twists and wonderful playing; Lynnette’s voice appears every now and then, broken down. The middle of the track sees its change to a different pace and mood and also has now Lynnette singing without being cut out but with over-dubs. This is a fabulous track, a great exercise in how to create sonic terror (meant in a good way).
The last song, The Anti-Man, mixes the two prominent characteristics here, those being heaviness (displayed by the heavy guitar riffing and powerful drum performance) and the eeriness (which is the result of the overall sound and song structure as well). It is the only song here that gets near the epic length of past albums tracks. Despite its length it was quite accessible to my ears and soon (-er than the other tracks) became a favourite track here. It ends with a feel of desperation and closure very well executed by the whole band, particularly by the solo guitar going almost berserk.
After all this I must also address what are (possible) flaws in this album. Two possible downsides in this release for some listeners can be that 1) it might be too much intensity at the expense of melody and 2) that it may be hard to distinguish between the different tracks (relating to what I noted at the start of this review). It is “brutal”, which is fine with me and I like it a lot, but some may feel that what characterized their two previous releases is lacking a bit here; that is their wonderful crafting of odd and special melodies. Not to say these are non-existing here but it drowns in the “sea” of intensity, the massive sound of the instruments that seem to overshadow everything else. This is why this album deserves the full attention of the listener and repeated listening. It may be a bit too much to listen to at times (and certainly while in the proper mood) and therefore a feeling that there’s a lack of diversity here may creep through. But one needs to look at this album as a sort of concept album or at least a consider there’s a sound- concept here, which is why there’s a dominancy of this tone throughout the album. For those who know and like the band and for those who like the styles and bands referenced in this review, I easily recommend this album. It is creating out-worldly sounds and conjures up some disturbing and weird images when listening. It is a fantastic listening experience which I will return to listen to (like their previous albums). One more thing, there’s superb performance by all the band members, wonderful playing which makes this even more pleasurable to listen to.