ALIVE

In the final months of my previous life, in the distant, "before-times", AKA BC (Before Covid), I listened to the last two studio albums by Klone a lot. They were frequent company during my daily commute. Was that a dream?

I moved onto other music in my deep, sanity-saving, prog dive of the past many months.

I saw this new, live, Klone album come up for new releases and gave it a few consecutive, very careful spins. It hit me quite hard, partially due to the context described above, but also because it is very good. Very good.

Through the first part of the opening track, Yonder, I was thinking that this is just going to be an uneventful, accurate, restatement of the studio albums, but then singer Yann Ligner let his voice start to fade long notes into distant, death yells, seamlessly. It was subtle and infrequent, but it was perfect. I'm not a fan of that style of singing, although I'm starting to "get it" a little now that I've let Opeth and Cult of Luna enter my consciousness. It sounded really good in this opener! It helps that Yann is probably one of the finest singers today.

Ok, now that you have my attention, Klone, where is this ride going to go? I'm giving you an hour, show me.

I had tried listening to earlier Klone, but I couldn't get past the death yell screams that were completely absent from the last two albums that I loved. It looks like I missed out. This album leans heavily on the last two albums (primarily Here Come the Sun), but it scatters in several songs from the previous two, heavier albums. What a great introduction to these new to me tracks where the death yells were tastefully interspersed and quite infrequent. I may need to visit those albums now.

The tracks from the last two albums were played quite truthful to the studio versions, but with a rough edge and more aggression, sometimes due to the heavier or more distorted guitar or bass, sometimes due to heavier drums, and often due to Yann's mastery of his voice and him frequently riding right on the edge of pure aggression (case in point, last few minutes of Nebulous).

The track selection and order in this recording are perfection. The songs flow and take you many places through various soundscapes, from dreamy to crushing heavy, but always with a deep, emotional, melancholy.

There's something a little different about this band and this album is a great representation and it would be a good introduction to the band. The guitars are very clean for a heavy band and the percussion is often sublte and complex (think Tool's Danny Carrey). The guitars from the the albums before those are more distorted and more metal somewhat, but still pretty light on the gain. The use of seven string guitars or heavily drop-tuned guitars contributes to the heaviness on most songs and makes up for the lower-gain sound. The earlier Klone tracks remind me of Riverside at times. On this live album there are also some subtle keys and atmospherics that vary a little from the studio albums and make things a little more interesting.

Klone covers a lot of themes, moods and styles, but they all flow together very well with a unique sound of their own. It's all weaved together by a tight and powerful rhythm section playing an interesting, blended style and some of the best vocals you will ever hear.

This album will deeply satisfy a Klone fan, but I suspect it would be very well appreciated by any fans of heavy prog. For me, personally, it's the other life bookend of this surreal past 15 months. A bookend different from the other. Hardened, tougher, changed, yet sensitive and evolved.

I can't give this one 4 stars and there is no 4.6, so it is a 5 for me.

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