BLACK SWALLOW

TELERGY is a group of a little genius who has performed in quite a few musical projects for a good 20 years; TELERGY is Robert McCLUNG a composer and music producer returning to his early love, in this case progressive rock and a bit of progressive metal and a bit of progressive rock opera and voila. "Black Swallow," the Black Swallow is the 4th album by this outstanding Emmy and Bilboard award winning musician. It is also important to announce your first listenings and emotions: PINK FLOYD, FLEETWOOD MAC, AEROSMITH, KANSAS, METALLICA, MEGADETH, QUEENSRYCHE, DREAM THEATER, SYMPHONY X, WITHIN TEMPTATION, SPOCK'S BEARD, MAGELLAN, COHEED And CAMPLORBRIA, EX RHAPSODY, AYREON, SAVATAGE, TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA. He succeeded in bringing on his project members of STYX, YES, KAMELOT, KING CRIMSON, NIGHTWISH, MARILLION, TESTAMENT, VANDEN PLAS, FOREIGNER, DELAIN, KING DIAMOND, IRON BUTTERFLY, J GEILS BAND and the sulphurous female voices and their famous swaying hips of PINK FLOYD; you expect something strong, complex, varied, merged without having to listen to the hilarious story of this Eugene, everything should pass in the notes since we start on an instrumental album! A few artists including Tony LEVIN, Pete TREWAVAS, Dave MEROS, Stephen LILL, David RAGSDALE, Todd SUCHERMAN, Vernon REID or the talented Durga McBROOM are on hand to take you on a journey through this album.

"Georgia" with acoustic harmonica blues in intro, a nod to his grandfather, then gospel and pompous entry, symphonic, fusional and tugging on the grandiloquent with orchestra in back, brass in front and a country guitar in solo, confusing but innovative; to note a very hard and very complex guitar solo halfway through. You might as well say it right away if you have musical blinders, you will be surprised; if you have a progressive musical mind, you are going to have a stroke, then you will love and groove on this extraordinary intro; ah the organ is coming, how do you find it? Well, better than AYREON, that is to say, more focused, more progressive with this harmonica solo and this warm female voice, bordering on gospel and blues, the music at its origins; and when you know who sings you will be even more stuck, in short, insane; first of two songs sung. "Chased Pt.1" or a frenzied chase, violins supported and symphonic base, a counterpart to the intro of "Time" then David's magic violin; unsettling title. "Infantry" epic and grandiloquent rise on a martial step, a little "The Trial" and its pompous intro then it starts even faster and stronger on the tracks of a NIGHTWISH, an EPICA, a FREEDOM CALL, a RHAPSODY, a THERION without backing vocals or a Roman or Greek cavalcade with the fastest riffs of the album? the machine gun riff falls steeply then gives way to an angelic and airy solo, can -to be the most beautiful of the album, finally plaintive bagpipe to move us even more; emotion and teardrop sequence.

"Take to the Sky" and its low-level plane, rhythmic, melodic, atmospheric air and its siren voices, frenzied with guitar solo do you want it on a divine orchestration, a station wagon with acoustic guitar à la "Wish You Were Here", then again this violin which reminds me a little of Jean-Luc PONTY or the group SOLSTICE or quite simply KANSAS, finally an angelic and serious choir until a dithyrambic finale, a pure moment of enjoyable happiness. "Marcelle" or a jazzy piano ballad, all that's missing is the beautiful Betty to make it perfect. "The Grand Duke" where the highlighting of his talents as a jazzy drummer and the clarinet, not far almost from gypsy jazz here as the rhythm is frenzied, small step of tap dancing, but where is Robert going? Well you will understand that we do not get bored in this instrumental opus.

"Spy" starts off with an orchestration of BOF with its spice of suspense, until the progressive metal cavalcade on double or triple pedal and nervous, dark and sly guitar; bang a sax just to taunt us and make us go on progressive rock like we did before, like in the days of PINK FLOYD like; little aside with a heavy bass then the guitar comes back galloping, twirling. "All Blood Runs Red" continues with the only title sung on a death voice which surprises a little, indefinable title, of BELIEVER in the background, a dark intro on the piano, choirs of sirens clinging to you to take you into the depths of the abyss, an immense latent crescendo rise full of rhythm, piano, trumpets, clarinet until this verbal deluge; a real snub to progressive maniacs who swear by the 70's, an ode to extreme progressive rock with the return of the flute and the piano at the end of the course to the herd of violins and the angry guitar, immense, good why I think of MERCYFUL FATE, I do not know anything. "Chased Pt.2" for a hard orchestral instrumental track, the keyboard forward here, we stay on 380 volts, it's rhythmic, it's fast, it's chopped, then digression with Mike OLDFIELD sauce superb and singular then a lewd guitar comes back to 4th gear. "Honor" and the final title, the ringtone to the dead, the funeral march on an air of spleen and hope, it has been a long time since I had used the word oxymoron which befits here perfectly, a little SIGUR ROS and a classical orchestration which takes all the space and all the measure of this final title, also sublime, simple but sublime.

Note 9 voice-over scenes with corresponding sound effects that link and explain the history of this famous Eugene, also note the bluesy, jazzy (fashionable in those times !!), military digressions of course and also digression towards gospel, towards the Charleston, to note my favorites with this presentation in good English of our hero and that narrating with accuracy on an ancestral voice of the beginning of the century, pure jewels which make it possible to connect the ten songs usefully and pleasantly; the little less of this concept comes in my opinion from classical orchestrations a little overdone and predictable, prefabricated but I have in my hands one of the best albums of the year just for the emotion and the sensitivity it gives off . 5 years to release a gem of progressive rock opera, art- music and so varied that even the term crossover cannot define. Be careful that the black swallow does not come to invade you in the same way.

US project TELERGY is the creative vehicle of composer and musician Robert McClung, and from 2011 and onward he has crafted and released a succession of thematic albums incorporating the idioms of progressive rock and progressive metal while at the same time highlighting historical periods or persons he feels should be better known. The fourth Telergy album "Black Swallow" was released earlier this year, where the story told is of the aviation pioneer and war hero Eugene Bullard.

Fans of instrumental progressive metal will find themselves a real treat of an album with Telergy's latest effort "Black Swallow". While I have my thoughts on why the subject matter of this album is explored at this point in time, and those are positive thoughts too I should add, I'll leave that part of it for others to conclude for themselves. Musically this is a solid venture from start to finish though; creative, expressive and not adhering all that much to genre conventions. A certain fondness for dramatic orchestral overlays and brass elements will be needed to be able to enjoy this album, but other than that this is a CD I find easy to recommend to just about anyone that tends to enjoy instrumental progressive metal. From my point of view at least this is the most solid album by Telergy to date.