SEVENTH HELL

Something has always bothered me in the way people discuss Ars Nova. It's always about how they're an ELP clone, that they're far too overblown, that their music is soulless and emotionless. I have always found that those comments were made in bad faith. They have ELP influences, that's for sure, but they are unique; a somewhat deep listen to their music, and it becomes apparent that they are very different from ELP. They are overblown, but since when has this been a bad thing? That word has lot all sense in the Prog-sphere, it has just become a de facto insult thrown at Symphonic Prog bands whenever they try to have fun. Ars Nova is overblown, but the substance is there; in a sense they are just blown. "Soulless, emotionless" is another buzzword thrown often at all types of Prog. I would like to remind those that use this word excessively that there are more emotions in the world than melancholy and awe. This isn't the classical era, we don't have to adhere to strict standards that qualify what is beautiful and what is not. Ars Nova has never been emotionless, they just don't have a lot of those slow and lush passages that apparently are the only allowed expression of one's feelings. Ars Nova, since day one, has always been bursting with passion. What some call overblown, I call it a celebration of music, an expression of their love for powerful music. Even in their album Biogenesis Project, which contains a lot of cheese and its fair-share of impossibly cringe-worthy moments, that emotion is felt. That emotion is Keiko Kumagai's passion for Sci-Fi and music, expressed in the best way she could muster. I believe Ars Nova deserve far more respect than they get, in anything because they are committed to make some of the most chaotic Symphonic Prog music out there.

That takes me to my favorite album of theirs, which ranks as my second favorite album of all time, Seventh Hell. What is there to say? It is Ars Nova at their most mature, most eclectic, heaviest, densest, and even most well produced! Onslaughts of solos and ever-changing parts, yet all is fluid, and every second is memorable. Tints of flamenco, opera, and surreal art, all mixed in with their signature anime-esque goth baroque sound, making them sound like they never have before. On the composing side of things, Keiko Kumagai is at her best (and hopefully not peak just yet). I am the first to say, her compositions used to be extremely disjointed. While every album had its highlights, it's not until the 2000s that she became a true genius. The Book of the Dead was the first album where her truly memorable and mind- blowing compositions began to take more space than the more disjointed ones. And on Biogenesis Project, she reached an incredible level of consistency. But Seventh Hell, it's beyond anything else! Not a single second of this album feels weak, poorly thought-out, or disjointed. Despite the complexity of those songs, especially in the opening and closing Suites, nothing is out of place, nothing is designed just to show off. Everything there is meant to be there and it is the most exhilarating feeling I know.

Seventh Hell opens with its title-track, and what an opening! In a move reminiscent of The Goddess Of Darkness, there's not a second of warm-up. No intro track to easy you into it, but instead of the Horror-movie-esque strings in Kali, you're hit with crunchy guitars and demonic voices. The mood is set in one second: this will be edgy, distorted, gothic, and uncompromising. It's like grabbing you by the neck and chucking you straight into hell. The emphasis put on the guitar really helps, it was a genius move! Sometimes it brings grit in the lower register, sometimes it soars in the high-register. The clean tones are piercing and ominous, the acoustic guitar brings a fantasy vibe that no other Ars Nova album has ever had. It's a constant barrage of new ideas, all of which fit together perfectly, and stand on their own as well. Epic in all the best ways for eleven-and-a-half minutes, an unbelievable song. And that reprise of the main theme at the end! I can't help but jump of my sit whenever it hits me, the culmination of 9 minute of unparalleled excitement finally released in the most satisfying way possible. This song holds some of my favorite musical moments ever, and it's only the first track!

After the bone-shattering intensity of Seventh Hell, Ars Nova takes a U-turn, into La Vénus Endormie, beginning with relaxing rain, and a beautifully fantasist guitar-led introduction. Gosh, how beautiful can a song get? For a minute, I find myself daydreaming; I walk through enchanted forests, lit by fairies in the darkness of the night. Music so evocative that it transports me to another dimension so quickly is rare. It shows that Ars Nova are not all about being big and bombastic either, they are a band who know how to be subtle when needed. The soaring guitar solo, the dense composition melding acoustic, electric, and electronic, who could resist that? With La Vénus Endormie, Ars Nova show us something I've rarely ever seen, subtlety without restraint. The composition is complex, but never overbearing; the musicians are all at their maximum, but none ever take too much space, or seem like they're trying too hard. Instead of achieving subtlety through restraint, they achieve it by looking deep inside their soul, by finding the most sensitive and poetic part of themselves, and then by giving it to their all. Beauty from the first to last second, the six minute song goes over in less than two in my mind.

To continue the trend of more subtle sounding music, in comes Cazadora de Astros. And what a beautiful track it is! In a move reminiscent of the introduction to Transi, Ars Nova ditch the muddy power of the Hammond and instead give us the clear grace of bells. The track crescendos, adding more acoustic instruments, some synths, a beautiful bass. This song shows itself to be less melodic than the previous, with some more complex flourishes scattered throughout. And once again, a perfect guitar solo in the middle of the track takes your soul, and releases it like a bird to fly among the stars. A peak of beauty and grace is reached with this song, a unique mix of firmness and confidence, with the softest of sensitivity. If La Vénus Endormie was the most beautiful song on this album, then Cazadora de Astros is the most passionate. I can only imagine what emotional catharsis composing it brought.

And then for something completely different, Voice of Wind. After being put at ease, Ars Nova decide to hit us in the face once again. With an ominous introduction, the texture of which could be compared to a dark mystical fog which beckons us to lose all our senses, a contrast to the previous track is immediately and extremely effectively set. This song has no time for us mortals, speeding through musical idea after musical idea after musical idea. It is Ars Nova making a more traditional metal song, laced with Koenjihyakkei-esque vocal hits and probably some kind of amphetamine. The speed at which this track pummels the listener with more and more insane ideas is exhilarating, seriously, where else do you have a breakdown which contains a bike!? Voices dance from ear to ear, mocking us, maybe. The atmosphere is absolutely on-point throughout the track, no matter how fast it goes, it is tasteful in its violence, polished in its barbarism.

The last, and longest track, might be one of the most awesome track, in the literal sense. Salvador Syndrome is Ars Nova presenting their homage to the surreal master Salvador Dali, and what an homage it is! It's complicated to talk about this track, or to wrap my head around it. It is the most conventional Ars Nova song here, but cranked up to a thousand percent. Kumagai's scatterbrain compositions, a few times, were clumsy, a bit jarring, or a bit forgettable; this suite introduces new themes and sections as fast as it ends them, and like all of this album, every second sticks. Nothing is ever boring, nothing ever feels off, not a single second feels free of thought. On paper, it should not work! A 17 minute symphonic metal suite, reminiscent of JRPG soundtracks, featuring a soprano singer, and flamenco. It should not work, at all, but it does. Ars Nova embody perfectly the first lyrics which describe Dali as "the most outrageous, outspoken, and controversial of a living artist". Outrageously well-composed, outspoken it its love of art, and controversial, judging by most people's reaction to the musical choices. Salvador Dali's spirit lives through this song, and without a doubt, he would have appreciated this grand piece of music in honor? or maybe not, we shall never know.

And like that, Seventh Hell ends, starts with a bang, ends with a bang, and every second transports us through time and space. My opinion might be biased, but I truly see this album as the best Symphonic Prog of the 21st century so far, and if I feel daring, as the best of all time. Every second enthralls me like nothing else in the world, it makes me laugh, it makes me cry, it makes me want to destroy the world, and it makes me want to appreciate the beauty of the night sky. An album full of contradictions, which instead of fighting for supremacy, embrace each other sensually. It is music that gives me everything I need, just thinking about its importance to me brings a tear to my eye. Just writing this review makes my heart beat faster. This is an album that made me want to be a composer, this is an album that made me want to be a musician, this is an album that deepened my understanding of music beyond what I thought was possible. If I could, I would thank Keiko Kumagai, and every musician, in person. I would thank them for this glorious and life-changing piece of art.

Seventh Hell is what I live for.

Favorite tracks: All of them 10/10

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