JACKSON

3.5 stars. I was told that KOREKYOJINN translated into english is THIS GIANT, because they are huge GENTLE GIANT and THIS HEAT fans. A trio out of Japan, this is a supergroup as they represent bands like KOENIJIHYAKKEI, RUINS, BONDAGE FRUIT, GROUND ZERO and ALTERED STATES. "Jackson" was released in 2006 and is their third studio album. Here's another record tagged with brutal prog, math rock, avant metal, experimental and avant prog. No vocals here but there's a lot of complex and mathy music.

A couple of tracks stood out from the rest for me. "Pathos" which starts out like a 2 minute improv before it kicks in. Some nice contrasts too and even a killer bass solo. "Rambling" also stood out for the rapid fire drumming to start before the bass and guitar kick in. It's pretty relentless save for a couple of brief calms. If I had to pick a top three I would include the opener but it's not as good as the other two in my opinion.The title track is my least favourite which is disappointing. The almost four minutes of strummed and picked acoustic guitar is too much.

Just to try to take something positive out of some of these insanely complex and powerful records I'd like to recommend two that stood out from the pack, both from Japan. KOREKYOJINN's "Arabesque" which has less distortion from the guitar, just sounds cleaner plus there's a KING CRIMSON flavour at times. Also RUINS "Symphonica" gives me at least two records in this style that I actually want to put on. PS It's kind of crazy that this album was released the same day I joined this site.