CONFRONTATION

After the Polish neo-prog band State Urge built up some name recognition with a demo CD and a few EPs, their first full-fledged CD, called "White Rock Experience", was released by Lynx Music in 2013. However, it is never really clear what exactly the band means by white rock and hordes of reviewers are wondering about this expression. Where do I stand? For me, white rock stands for honest, sincere music that, in all its purity, is not colored by commercialism. In 2015, the four young musicians released successor "Confrontation" discussed here and the question is of course how white the rock is here.

Well, we can be brief about that. Pure white. "Confrontation" has it all. In the eight songs on the album we hear this driven passion omnipresent. The integrity, urgency and persuasiveness with which the rock-injected neo-prog is made is very great. What a bunch of accurate musicians.

Michal Tarkowski regularly brings a Deep Purple-like organ into the keyboard-dominated music, while guitarist Marcin Cieslik always manages to get the right guitar parts from his instrument. These are often riffs, but he also comes up with all kinds of other key changes and of course there are his solos that take the music to a higher level. Cieslik is also the band's singer and he does a good job. He won't win The Voice Of Poland, but you can also see that as a compliment. In terms of voice he reminds me of Krzysiek Drogowski from the also Polish band After, especially since the music of both bands is very similar. With State Urge I also hear a gritty layer and something of the sixties in their music. In both cases, bass guitar and drums give the music an exciting rhythm and that makes for a well-oiled listen.

The band displays a disarming charm offensive on "Confrontation", which gives the foursome a huge goodwill factor on this album. Every second is spot-on starting with the opening title track. This relatively short track takes you into the album with its energetic riffs, only to let you go almost fifty minutes later. The song transitions seamlessly into Revival, which stands out for a few bars of jazz, while the vast majority of it is dominated by full organ chords.

State Urge knows how to create beautiful contrasts (both within and outside the songs) which is made evident by the two subsequent compositions. For a long time, Liquid Disease has been a nice angular prog metal song from Riverside where you will regularly have to count to eleven. When the song takes an atmospheric turn, a delightful guitar solo and catchy keyboard playing follow. Cold As A Lie, on the other hand, is a ballad with many keyboard chords. As the song evolves it becomes bloody beautiful, but the highlight of the album is yet to come. This honor is reserved for the thrilling closing track More, but before that happens, three other pieces require attention. There is Midnight Mistress, a bombastic song with majestic church organ sounds that you simply cannot get enough of and the largely acoustic New Season also keeps you glued to the speakers. After the exuberant Before The Dawn, it is the turn of the aforementioned closing track More and I actually don't feel obligated to describe this track in any further detail. The easy-to-sing-along song has more value than my advice to just experience it.

Actually, the whole white rock phenomenon is something you have to experience. Only then will the concept become fully clear to you. Well, intensive listening is absolutely no punishment. In fact, I recommend confrontation to everyone.

Orginally posted on www.progenrock.com