ANKAA

Oh wow, it's quite surprising that they launch such a sweet and energetic approach in this opus. "Ankaa" was released in 2015 as the second (and latest so far) album by a Sydney-based combo SERIOUS BEAK. I've bumped into their creation via Bandcamp, which sleeve pic said the album looked like a deadly maverick. But as a matter of fact, I could not help getting immersed in brilliant soundscape combinations of extreme progressive metal and melodic art metal discharged through their powerful instrumental intentions. Let me say their great sound structure can be called 'kaleidoscopic', for sure.

The first shot "Proto" is such an explosive progressive metal featuring polyrhythmic rhythm bases and deep heavy metallic guitar maneuvers. The shortest track in this album gives the audience wonderful electric shockers. Magnificent megaton metal punches evacuate our inner mind like a vacant world. Good not to think about anything but simply to enjoy the deep world. And the following one "Main Sequence" is a grand masterpiece, produced rough feedbacks, dry desert-y heavy guitar experiments, shoegaze psychedelic mellow guitar-oriented spoken words, cool shooty rhythmic innovations, melodious metallic artsy worlds in the similar vein to Dream Theater or Haken. Impressive phrases should catch our minds strictly and violently. 13 minutes launched by 'em are not long nor extensive but exciting and rather agitative. The last spurt by all instruments reminds us of something serious like the end of "A Day In The Life" ... ah sorry for my overestimation but pretty amazing.

"Red" is another fantasy. Complicated multi-rhythmic ground bases are interesting and delicious. Simple but superdimensional melody lines are quite acceptable. Although there's a kind of quietness featuring guitar psychedelia and percussion stability, they play with full power, energy, and thrilling potential all around the song for over ten minutes. Guess they on stage and the audience in front of them would be driven into great ecstasy. And in the last run "Heat Death" we can hear something depressing like debris or burned corpses. Wondering if there is another hope or not, under such a tough situation. But they give us heartwarming words created with smooth melody lines in a hot dry desert atmosphere. We will be comprehended in sad quietness and dissonant after-flavour.

What an extremity. Welcome to 35-minute dreamy grandeur.