EXCAVATIONS OF THE MIND

I remember starting listening to Excavations Of The Mind just around the same time as Haken's Aquarius and the weird thing is that the two albums began their journeys on the polar opposite sides of my mind! Aquarius began as a huge favorite while Excavations Of The Mind dragged along somewhere at the back of my top releases of 2010. It's funny how much a few month of reflection can do for these types of releases since I now only consider Aquarius to be an average release while Excavations Of The Mind is actually one that I can definitely recommend!

It's not as if Sky Architect have managed to created an amazing album, but it's definitely an interesting experience only enhanced by the fact that this is the band's debut release. The first part of the album consists of a loosely based Deep Chasm quadrilogy, where only Part II and IV can actually be considered interlinked. But hey, they are the longest sections of this 19 minute opus and I definitely wouldn't have enjoyed the tracks as much if they had been squashed into a single composition. The final 7 minute section, called Part IV: Chasm, is easily the highlight of the entire piece with a very unexpected sounding approach that I honestly did not expect for the band's sound, giving it a highly eclectic vibe.

The Grey Legend continues the whole trend of lengthy compositions and this 12 minute beast takes us on a highly adventurous ride through many weird loops. Somehow I lack the overall understanding for this particular performance and I blame this on a lack of a prominent theme throughout the track. I really have to congratulate Tom Luchies' vocal performance up to this point, but the speech-like style that he is going for on this track don't work in his favor and instead brings out a few foreign sounding syllables into the mix. Not something that many might find to be a negative thing, but it really cuts my ears wherever I pay close attention to the vocals on The Grey Legend.

Russian Wisdom is another surprise which is pretty much the overall theme of this album; expect the unexpected! This highly upbeat 5 minute tune is also the most accessible of the bunch, but I can assure you that it's not in any commercial fashion! The song serves as a nice transition into the album's title track and also what I consider to be the single best composition of 2010!

Please note that I don't give out these type of honors easily but seeing that I haven't been able to get enough of this track for the last three months is pretty much a given proof that this 12 minute composition is one of those special moments that I just can't afford to take for granted. I really don't want to spoil the experience for anyone who still hasn't heard it, simply because it's such a special one. All I will say is that you're in for one amazing ride here so just place yourself in a comfortable seat and enjoy!

The album concludes with an odd 3 minute track titled Gyrocopter. It starts and ends way too soon but something tells me that the lads in Sky Architect did this on purpose, presumably in order to spice up our interests for a potential followup release. In summary, Excavations Of The Mind might not be the best album of 2010 but it does an excellent job of giving us exactly the right amount of taste for the band that we are bound to hear more of in the years to come!

***** star songs: Deep Chasm (Part. IV) (6:45) Excavations Of The Mind (11:46)

**** star songs: Deep Chasm (Part. II) (8:04) Deep Chasm (Part. III) (0:43) Russian Wisdom (5:05) Gyrocopter (2:58)

*** star songs: Deep Chasm (Part. I) (3:38) The Grey Legend (12:11)