METAMORPHOSIS

AXONS: "the long threadlike part of a nerve cell along which impulses are conducted from the cell body to other cells." NEURONS: "a specialized cell transmitting nerve impulses; a nerve cell."

AKRON: "Summit, or High Point"

My chief associations with Akron, Ohio, would have been Goodyear Tires, and Dr. Bob, co-founder of Alcoholics Anonymous.

Now, it must include AXON-NEURON, a musical enterprise I discovered thanks to other progressive rock fanatics, who are as determined (sometimes more so) to ferret out exquisite exemplars of this genre, as am I.

JEREMEY POPARAD

Jeremey provided lyrics and music, and surrounded himself with other excellent musicians- plus orchestra- to present "Metamorphosis".

In my books, that makes him the mastermind. His concerns seem to be wide-reaching and a meld of pure mathematics, sciences like chemistry and biology, philosophy, psychology, and of course transformation.

MELDING and CONNECTING

The music for example brings together flavors and influences like contemporary classical, jazz and jazz-fusion, progressive rock, progressive metal, and experimental forms. Elsewhere someone used the term "Symphonic Progressive Rock", but I disagree. The use of orchestra as key component in preludes and postludes aside, there is minor orchestration in a few tracks as well.

Rather, this seems to be Crossover or Eclectic Progressive Music, yet another melding example.

LYRICS

For me the French phrase "bon mot", in the sense of "well-chosen words", comes to mind. Among the lyrics there are many such, of which this is but one example, from track 13, "Keepsakes": "To bound forth from the past/ Without being bound to the past/ Guided, not governed, by our ghosts."

I was struck too with Jeremey's ability to capture the conundrums, contradictions, and paradoxes of being a living, breathing, thinking person. In Track 12, "Summit", the protagonist labors, terrified, to the summit, glories in the achievement, only to realize there are countless more challenging mountains ahead.

MELDING LYRICS and MUSIC

Here was another sign of the genius of this two-disc work: Lyrics and music worked hand-in-hand to achieve an outcome of musical wholeness. The use of vocalist Amanda, with her sometimes whispering, sometimes longing, sometimes aching timbres helped guide that wholeness.

Yet each instrumentalist and backing vocalist was superb. There were fiery, intense passages driven by the intricate work of drums, 8- and 6-string guitars and bass, alongside jazzy piano and keyboards that tastefully complemented the moods presented.

IN SUM

A remarkable, essential progressive rock production from AXON-NEURON.

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