DIE WITHOUT LIVING

In my review about the debut album First Mind (2017) by Polish Neo-Prog band Fizbers I wrote: "This promising new Polish prog formation reminds me of Pendragon, also a band with simply structured music, with the focus on melody, harmony and emotion. I am looking forward to the development of Fizbers!" So I was very curious to its successor, entitled Die Without A Living and released in 2018.

Well, on this second effort again the focus is on melody, harmony, and emotion, this time dark, very dark emotion, as the depressive title of the album already suggests. Remarkable is often how close the singer sounds to Nick Barrett from Pendragon. In the track 54 female guest singer Milena Locksmith colours the emotional vocals about a relationship with high pitched vocals, the slightly hysterical undertone emphasizes the anger and despair.

Of course we can expect dark atmospheres with this kind of dark lyrics, and indeed, most of the 7 compositions feature melancholical climates and vocals, often dreamy with tender piano and acoustic guitar (especially They Fade, Shape). But often halfway the mellow and dark music turns into a catchy beat or heavy outbursts and bombastic eruptions. During these moments the electric guitar work is outstanding, very moving, with howling, fiery, crying, moving and blistering soli. And I am blown away by the raw wah-wah guitar in the strong opener I Am The Remedy. The guitar is really an ace on this album, not only electric but also acoustic.

The absolute highlight on this album is the final composition, the titletrack, clocking around 17 minutes. It starts dreamy featuring acoustic guitars, tender piano and melancholical vocals. Then an accellaration, followed by a serie of shifting moods, from mellow to bombastic, wonderfully coloured by guitars, vocals and keyboards. The conclusion of this epic composition is very compelling: after a surprising swinging rhythm with piano, an interlude with warm piano follows, then sensitive electric guitar runs, an accelaration with sparkling piano and fiery guitar work, a short dreamy piano piece, culminating in a bombastic outburst with powerful, melancholical vocals, emphasizing the basic mood of this album, dark, very dark.

An interesting album, this band deserves a wider audience.

My rating: 3,5 star.

This review was previously published in a slighty different version on the Dutch progrock website Background Magazine.

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