progressive rock / jazz
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What do we have here? This is something that doesn't often reach our inbox. Come to think of it, I don't think there are many bands left in the progressive jazz rock area of the musical universe. But that's ok, we don't need many bands, we just need one or a few good ones and in that aspect, we're being quite pampered with this little gem. It's an adventure in rock music, loaded with elements that you just don't hear a lot these days.
Seven Impale is a band from Norway, formed in 2010. They released their debut 'City Of the Sun' in 2014, which is now followed by 'Contrapasso'. On this new album, they explored their unique and varied sound much further, resulting in an album loaded with unexpected hooks, contrasting rhythms and strange melodies. Furthermore, there are some brilliant vocal lines and hypnotic psychedelic solos.
That being said, perhaps this album is a bit too experimental for some people. Too much rock and metal for jazz fans and too much jazz for metalheads. I think the real target audience for this full-length is somewhere in the middle, where fans of Frank Zappa, King Crimson and Van Der Graaf Generator live. Yes, "live", for that kind of people, music is a safe haven in a world that isn't competent enough to control its own noise.
For me, personally, 'Contrapasso' is a great album, highlighting in the opening track 'Lemma' and in 'Helix'. Again, that's a tough decision to make since every song here contains massively impressive passages, like the jam-session in 'Inertia' which is hypnotic as hell. Other elements seem to come from post-rock, psychedelic rock, krautrock and whatever it is that people like Tangerine Dream or Klaus Schulze made.
Then again, you can also bang your head a little to 'Langour', if you're an experienced progressive metalhead that is. A short headbanging session to some heavy part of a Dream Theater concert is that least you should have done before you're ready for the musical ingenuity of Seven Impale. Yes, this stuff is way more interesting that Dream Theater, but that might be personal opinion.
To end this review, I'd like to mention Sleepytime Gorilla Museum to emphasize the theatrical and often cabarettesque feeling of the whole thing. This atmosphere mainly comes from the vocals and the use of the sax. It's a weird combination but it works pretty damn well. It adds a lot to the variation of the album, which is already highly varied to begin with. So yeah, I think you should check this out.
Serge
Seven Impale is a band from Norway, formed in 2010. They released their debut 'City Of the Sun' in 2014, which is now followed by 'Contrapasso'. On this new album, they explored their unique and varied sound much further, resulting in an album loaded with unexpected hooks, contrasting rhythms and strange melodies. Furthermore, there are some brilliant vocal lines and hypnotic psychedelic solos.
That being said, perhaps this album is a bit too experimental for some people. Too much rock and metal for jazz fans and too much jazz for metalheads. I think the real target audience for this full-length is somewhere in the middle, where fans of Frank Zappa, King Crimson and Van Der Graaf Generator live. Yes, "live", for that kind of people, music is a safe haven in a world that isn't competent enough to control its own noise.
For me, personally, 'Contrapasso' is a great album, highlighting in the opening track 'Lemma' and in 'Helix'. Again, that's a tough decision to make since every song here contains massively impressive passages, like the jam-session in 'Inertia' which is hypnotic as hell. Other elements seem to come from post-rock, psychedelic rock, krautrock and whatever it is that people like Tangerine Dream or Klaus Schulze made.
Then again, you can also bang your head a little to 'Langour', if you're an experienced progressive metalhead that is. A short headbanging session to some heavy part of a Dream Theater concert is that least you should have done before you're ready for the musical ingenuity of Seven Impale. Yes, this stuff is way more interesting that Dream Theater, but that might be personal opinion.
To end this review, I'd like to mention Sleepytime Gorilla Museum to emphasize the theatrical and often cabarettesque feeling of the whole thing. This atmosphere mainly comes from the vocals and the use of the sax. It's a weird combination but it works pretty damn well. It adds a lot to the variation of the album, which is already highly varied to begin with. So yeah, I think you should check this out.
Serge