SORCERESS

Persephone tricks, pastoral acoustic guitars open the album to indulge mind and ears, then Sorceress rips all the nordic beautiful landscapes and explodes in power-symphonic madness to present the first pounding riff of the album, what a song! The odd-melodic welcomed end is legendary, and the lyrical content, superb! The Wilde Flowers follows with the same tonality as its predecessor but in a more amicable spirit, some similarity to the Cantrell led Alice in Chains, incredible key textures by Joakim Svalberg and some fantastic shredding by Åkesson with a wonderful vocal harmonizing finale that disrupts and brings back the now darker prog madness. Will O the Wisp resembles the incredible Tull of the Wood & Horses era, folky and story-telling, even Mikael vocals sound very Anderson-like. Besides the unjust comparison, an excellent track. The guitar work is outstanding again, simple, melodic and somehow trippy! Chrysalis is one of my favorites, a song I can play over and over and just gets better and better, powerful and dark but totally memorable, with progressive metal written all over, the drumming is simply fantastic and Méndez's display of bass power hysterically fenomenal! A change of mood towards the end helps create a loop of lyrics and instrumentation before the song dies. Acoustic arrangements refresh the experience with some of the brightest melodies in the overall dark trip. Psychedelic vocalization places the soundscape on the 70's, kind of Pink Floydish at times, a nice pause indeed. The Seventh Sojourn brings a more middle-eastern type of melodies and percussion, a good and enjoyable nstrumental that evolves into this kind of dreamy piano-driven ending, oddly masterful. Strange Brew, the only song of the album where Mikael Åkerfeldt is not the only given writing credits. After the spacey psychedelic entrance one can immediately feel the guitarist influence before the prog madness strikes once again, this time with a force and determination that shadows the previous heavy moments of the album. The riffing feels like heavy truck at full speed and the guitar licks are face-melting. Everybody shines here, the musical display is brilliant, the arrangements very deep and haunting, definitely a strange brew, and it works, as always. Again can't seem to disconnect the feeling form that of the post-Lane AIC era. A Fleeting Glance starts with a pastoral-like acoustic guitar evolving to a Beatles-inspired mid tempo superb dark track (like a darker Lucy in the Sky) that fluctuates between the refreshing guitar and the psychedelic theme and the vocal harmonies are fenomenal. The last minute and so shows the more accesible side of their music, melodic and catchy, with unearthly drumming and simple but nice guitar shredding. Era follows initiating with a soft piano segment but rapidly converting into a fast and more bombastic track, heavy riffing, powerful and fat bass lines all accompanied by the amazing drumming. The vocals sound perfect and well tuned, for some reason it made me think of the last album from The Vintage Caravan, that same feel, chaotic but making sense, melodic but dark and complex at the same time. Persephone (Slight Return) brings the trip to an end, soft, short and precise, I love when albums let themselves fade away like that. Loved it. THE END

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