SPIRIT ANIMAL

If you like John Carpenter's work as a composer, and you like Rush, it is about time for you to hear one of the best new bands out there, Zombi! Zombi combines heavily Rush influenced drumming, with lush atmospheres from tons of analogue keyboards. Zombi is made up of two guys. You have Steve Moore, who does most of the keyboard work, but also is the bass player, and he does a killer job at that! Then you have A.E. Paterra, who plays the drums, and his style resembles Neil Peart's incredibly.

With Spirit Animal, Zombi has done it again, they have created yet another solid and enjoyable album. Clocking in at almost 58 minutes, and only with 5 tracks; Spirit Animal holds some long tracks, allowing the real progression of Zombi's style to take it's course.

Starting with the title track Spirit Animal. They don't waste any time getting you right into the feel of the album, with a 14 minute track. Starting with some soft chorus like keyboard playing building up to the almost slow motion rock that leads the track. Then towards the middle of the track, there is a break down of the song, with soft flute and guitar. This is all backed with keyboard hums, until the mellotron makes its appearance, causing me to think of Genesis, with the guitar, flute and mellotron. Then it breaks back into the same theme from the beginning of the track, now with a very intense mellotron playing, until it finally fades away.

Spirit Warrior This track begins with a lot of energy, letting you know that it is not going to let up anytime soon. The progression of this track is amazing. It builds tension amazing well, all while playing some John Carpenteresque keyboards, with superb bass playing and drumming. It breaks down a few minutes into the track, only to begin to build you up again. You are left at the end with an incredible force of power behind the music.

Earthly Powers This track starts out with an assaulting keyboard line, that would have you think of Goblin. This drumming and keyboard playing builds up to a breakdown of the song. The breakdown is led by precise and crisp drumming, with a strong bass line, and a sequenced keyboard, which are constantly growing in intensity and speed. While the speed continues to build the drums and bass drop out, while a mellotron comes in to help build speed. Suddenly the drums and bass come crashing back in, with even more speed. The keyboard become more maniacal, and then drops out, leaving the drums and bass to finish the track off.

Cosmic Powers There isn't too much to say about this track. It is more of the Zombi classic keyboard and drum building. The interesting part of this track is that, instead of staring out at slower, and less dense pace; it seems that this track almost progresses backward. Which to me is an interesting thing to for Zombi to have done. It is effective, and works well for a shorter track.

Through Time One thing that bugs me about this track, is that the guitar and bass playing in it are a little too heavy for my taste. It starts out with some very heavy sounding keyboard, until they bring in a heavy riff. The drumming is what really looses me in this track, it is very disappointing to hear this style of rock drumming, when our ears were just delighted to bask in the drumming of the previous tracks. The drumming brings itself back a little ways into the song, but is drowned by the heavy riffing present at the time. Slowly in this section, does the keyboard try to bring some build to it, but just ends up fading out. At about 9 and a half minutes in, the keyboard pops back up, with a really cool sounding sequence (I would love to hear this in another Zombi track). Finally the riff is taken down and out of the song, with the keyboard leading the way out of the album. The fading out of this song is really interesting, and is a great way to end an album. Over all this song, is the weakest track. If you like heavier songs though, this one might appeal more to you.

In the end the newest addition to Zombi's collection was well worth the wait. They really pulled off some interesting songs, most of which I enjoyed from beginning to end. Like I said, if you like John Carpenter, Rush, and even Goblin, you should definitely check this album out. If not, do yourself a favor and get at least one of Zombi's albums, they are all great!

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