PART THE SECOND

Review by ProgKidJoel

Its is becoming rarer and rarer that a masterpiece comes along which genuinely deserves all of its praise, but Maudlin Of The Well's 2009 release, PART THE SECOND, is exactly that. A truly perfect album, and the album which blasted this band into one of my favourites, and also introduced them to many proggers who'd never previously listened to this avant-garde wonder.

Musically, this is a brilliant mix of metal, neo-classical and avant-garde, which is something to be expected from motW. The vocals which stood out on Maudlin Of The Well's other releases are now gone, although this leaves more space for instrumental exploration, which is much needed and amply evident in this brilliant group from Boston.

Opening with a great track in EXCERPT FROM 6,000,000,000... /REVISITATION OF THE BLUE GHOST, Part The Second sets the mood for a more understandable and accessible Maudlin Of The Well. This track features beautiful guitar and drum work, which is transposed by even better violin work. Featuring a great chorus, this track feels much more like a Post-rock masterpiece than what one can usually expect from motW. At around half-way through its 10.30 minute length, this track breaks down into a great rhythm with lovely piano and guitar work. This continues until the end of the track, which although inevitable, feels regrettable due to the brilliance of this opener.

Next up, we have KEEP THE LIGHT NEAR YOU, EVEN WHEN DYING. This track is my favourite from the album, and is also a contender for my favourite Maudlin track. Opening with beautiful keyboards and violin, this track features into a deliciously musical labyrinth which is insanely difficult to describe. This track is for the majority an instrumental, but its easy to see why, as I doubt vocals could have fitted into this track. At around the 1:30 mark, this track breaks down into a beautiful verse, which is the best from the album. Delicate tones and perfectly structured instrumental tracks carry this song into a brutal guitar solo. After the solo, an off muffled voice speaks in indecipherable words, and soon after, claps are overlapped by a bass and cello track. This carries back into the complex rhythm and muffled voice once more, and then back into more hand claps. These continue until the operatic moan finishes the track, leading into the next.

ROZE QUARTZ TURNING TO GLASS opens with more brilliant violins, and these overlapping string sections make this album memorable and unique. We then find ourselves amidst a classical journey through an orchestra of incredibly calm and tame music experimentation. At around half way through, this track reaches further back into motW's roots than ever before. At around half way through, we reach this album's first section with a genuine song-based approach to music, featuring a fantastic guitar and drum rhythm, with equally enjoyable vocals and synth chords. After this great song-section, we find a similar yet different texture of rock with some great guitar work. Toby Driver proves he has some genuine chops towards the end of this song.

CLOVER GARLAND ISLAND is another great track from this album, featuring the same vocal style on BATH and LEAVING YOUR BODY MAP, albeit behind layers of guitar chords. This track continues with an incredibly odd and unpredictable riff for several minutes, until the last two, which are brilliant, and mark a massive change, with great vocal harmonies and lyrics. This section is genuinely brilliant, and one of the unforgettable moments on this track. It eventuates into another rock guitar riff, which is just lovely. Once again, more great guitar work transposes the lovely orchestral string sections and jazz drumming. This track finished with more soft guitar work and excellently bitter vocals.

LABORATORIES OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD opens with another beautifully unpredictable guitar rhythm, this is a great space rock track with more lovely vocals. This then floats into a beautiful lyric (I am a memory... Burnt onto thin air) and some even better guitar work. The album's obvious epic delivers on many fronts, particularly technically. This track crosses over more new ground than motW have ever before, and its easy to see why - The many musical textures and emotions in this track are nearly as many as they are brilliant, which is hard to believe. At around 8 minutes, this track reaches a great avant-garde riff, played on down tuned guitars with confusing implications for the future course of the song. The last minute of this track is a piano version of the opening riff from KEEP THE LIGHT NEAR YOU, which sounds beautiful, and makes for a fitting end to a genuinely blemish-less album.

My top album of 2009, without question, is one of the best prog albums ever. Considering this album is available as a free download from MAUDLIN OF THE WELL's official site, you're only letting yourself down by missing out on this one.

GET IT! -Joel!

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