ENTERING THE SPECTRA

KARMAKANIC is a side project of THE FLOWER KINGS with the involvement of the complete TFK line-up as already explained well in the biography. However although they are the same musicians I would disagree to the quite common opinion that their music sound almost the same like FK's. At least if one substracts 2 tracks on this albums, one of them being a TFK composition anyway (#7), the other is the very long epic title song, which is in fact the hightlight of the album. Of course Roine's voice sounds like Roine, whether he sings in TFK, KARMAKANIC or THE TANGENT. One main difference compared to TFK is that Karmakanic's music is less intricate (at least compared to Unfold The Future having fewer symphonic elements in general and is heavier, sometimes tending even towards Hardrock/Metal.

Okay let's try a track by track review: The Little Man represents the introduction of the album's theme which is the story of "the tiny little man with an ordinary life", who would like to be something special and is escaping for this reason into internet cyberspace. No.2, the title song is like mentioned above very much TFK-alike and consists in the typical TFK manner of several parts in quite different styles like heavy rock, more mellow music and jazz-rock fusion. Very diverse and definitely the best one. The Spirit Remains the Same is quite reminiscent of POS, although Daniel Gildenlöw is not involved here. The whole song sounds very dark with vocals of ex-RISING FORCEsinger Göran Edman and inclusion of an aboriginal vocal sample. For sure not very much TFK-typical. No. 4's title Cyberdust From Mars fits perfectly to the music, starting with a deep breathing and being a very spacy, a bit weird and quite heavy song with vocals performed by Roine that sound here differently than usually. Apart of his voice this song has as well little resemblance with TFK. Space Race No.3 is a very Metal-alike one with Göran Edman singing. In fact this music style should not be that surprising for a band led by Jonas Reingold, knowing something about his (and Zoltan Csörsz') numerous appearances in Melodic/Neoclassical bands like TIME REQUIEM, SPACE ODYSSEY or OPUS ATLANTICA, mainly together with MAJESTIC-keyboarder Richard Andersson. Although this kind of music is quite nice to listen IMO, it's probably not regarded as essential and interesting by Progheads. Next track The Man In The Moon is the weakest one of the album I would say, although being not really bad. Actually a quite common AOR rock song with Edman singing once again. It's leading without any break over to No. 7 One whole half, which was already relased on the Rainmaker album bonus disc. This version sounds a bit different and quite interesting containing an brilliant solo by Jonas. A rather hectic, fast and heavy song. EXCELLENT! No. 8 Is this the end? is starting very mellow in a psychedelic vein, and develops over some choral singing finally to an almost QUEEN-alike arena rock (or Power Metal) hymn. This song sounds as well not much TFK-alike, but still a very good one. Then Jonas is presenting us a short fretless version of Bach's Cello Suite No.1 played in an incredible speed and his bass play is leading over to the last track Welcome To Paradise, a quite fast and more heavy song with Jonas and Göran Edman singing together. The lyrics are very ironic and despite of the title it sounds sometimes more like an invitation to hell. In some parts this song could also be a TFK one, but with its heavy rock impact it still sounds differently. A very good one again.

Conclusion:

Entering The Spectra fully keeps what its title is promising. It's very colourful having in fact almost any weak moments (apart of "Man In The Moon") and indeed is a very remarkable debut, at least one of the better ones in the last few years. Although it does not have quite the very high level as TFK's releases, it still offers a nice combination of TFK-style of music and some kind of melodic hardrock/metal in the vein of above mentioned bands in which Jonas Reingold, Zoltan Csörsz as well as former TFK-drummer Jaime Salazar have been involved. Not only recommended for TFK-fans I would say but to fully appreciate it maybe one should like melodic Power Metal. Although not necessarily an essential one in Prog this album is still worth 3,5 stars!

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