FIRST UTTERANCE

As a long time reader of PA, I am quite grateful for all the excellent reviews on this site and have expanded my musical universe exponentially because of it. For this oasis in cyperspace, I thank you all :)

As my FIRST UTTERANCE on PA, I have chosen one of my all time favorite albums, one that needs no introduction on this site as I see it has at long last been sneaking in and out of the top 250. All I can ask is ? how can this masterpiece not be in the top 10? Too freaky for everyone I guess.

This album remains an anomaly even today. I still have never heard anything else quite like this. A strange alchemy of folk instrumentation, psychedelic rock schizophrenia, progressive time signatures, tribal drumming, tortured strings and subject matter that makes me want to consider this the first black metal album. Well, black folk maybe? Whatever you call it ? it is undoubtedly one of the most successful fusion albums of folk, rock and the avant-garde.

In Greek mythology, Comus was the god of festivity and represents anarchy and chaos. This is the only album by this group that lives up to that description and does it perfectly from beginning to end. After listening to the follow-up albums TO KEEP FROM CRYING and the 2012 comeback album OUT OF THE COMA, it appears that this was the only album where they channeled the very essence of the Greek god himself and took the listener to a entirely different realm where demons frolicked freely throughout the darkened lands.

This was love at first listen because it was so different from anything I had ever heard before, but it took many listens to really get it and appreciate its complexity. After a gazillion listens I can honestly say that I never get tired of hearing it. It's one that continues to amaze me now as it did the first time I heard it. Five big fat demented stars. And oh yeah, loooove that album cover.