TIME MACHINE

The fifth studio album of Comedy of Errors, called Time Machine, is, just like in the Beethoven symphonies, their very best ... so far. Well, it's the first of their albums I am giving a rating of five stars out of five. Although the album is just 5 tracks long (plus a live bonus track version of their previous highlight Disobey), it offers a wide variety of musical styles, concepts and ideas.

To begin with the first song 'The Knight Returns': after an ultra short intro of just 6 chords on keyboard, the listener is immediately being overwhelmed with a very fast paced up-tempo song containing good vocals on a great drum rhythm in 12/8 measure. After a while a kind of medieval intermezzo brings down the tempo, after which the song turns into a rock ballad, kind of in half time with great solo guitar work. About one and a half minute before the end, the tempo is being doubled again, but this only serves as a passage to the original up-tempo in 12/8, which concludes this very impressive first song.

The second song, "Lost Demigods" is kind of a tribute to a certain classical composer, as it starts with ... yes indeed, the opening motive of Beethoven's fifth. More than just a randomly chosen symphony, I guess. Above a steady rhythm a vocal passage follows with solo verses, alternated by multivocal choruses. At the end of the song a citation of 'Freude schoner Gotterfunken' from Beethoven's 9th symphony occurs.

Now "Wonderland" is, as you would expect, a "wonderful" song, an epic over 15 minutes long. Starting with distantly sounding motives and vocals, after a minute or two the steady rhythm section joins in. Gradually the piece builds up tension, as more theatrical chords enter the scene. We hear a great guitar solo just before the 5 minute mark, and more nice keyboard work after that until the song comes to a stop with a siren-like glissando all the way up as if we were listening to the Rhapsody in Blue intro from Gershwin. This paves the road for some more great drum work after which the glissando comes back, but now all the way down. Accompanied by a snare drum rhythm a new theme enters, followed by the motives from the beginning of this song. Now a Bach-like theme is introduced which is being repeated many times with different instrumentation. Again the piece builds up tension, until the theme (quite unexpectedly) is also being sung by Joe. More symphonic variations on the theme follow until, about 5 minutes before the end, the steady rhythm section from the beginning returns. More verses follow with the Bach-like theme played on different instruments now serving as intermezzo between them. One and a half minute before the end of the song, it's time for the grand apotheosis, with theatrical chords accompanied by drum rolls, until the closing chord, which suprisingly enough again gives room for a very soft echoing of the Bach-like theme on synthesizer.

"The Past of Future Days" is an instrumental piece with an important role for bass, (synthesized) strings and accoustic guitar, multiple times they interact like in a fugue. Sections with and without drums accompaniment alternate.

The title track "Time Machine", an epic over 12 minutes, is a fabulous composition. Starting with slow piano chords serving as accompaniment for the first verses the slow rock ballad builds up tension while more and more instruments join in, even with (synthesized) brass. After a while the piece seems to end, but it turns out just to be a passage to an up-tempo instrumental fragment of the song with great guitar and synthesizer solos. Just like in the previous song, a kind of fugue is being started until suddenly the 'come prima' slow rock ballad tempo returns, which serves as introduction to a fragment sung in French, like a 'chanson'. This starts very soft, but again it builds up rapidly until we hear the rock ballad chords and rhythm again. The last 3 minutes of the song we get great guitar solo work again, sometimes with 2 parallel lines like in the famous Eagles song Hotel California. The song ends with a hymn-like closing verse with accompaniment that seems to fade out, but the opening piano chords form the real and ultimate ending of this magnificent song.

In a comparison with the earlier albums, I would say they skipped the 'below average' songs and enlarged the excellent ones into longer epics. On this album I especially like the Bruce's way of drumming. But Joe's vocals are also excellent. All in all this album should enlighten many prog rock fans. Highly recommended, not just for Errors fans!