SHELL

Heavy prog indeed. Their debut "Wheel Of Fortune" really impressed me especially the guitar playing. On "Shell" it's the bass and drum combo that really dominates the sound here. Sure we still get lots of flute and our fair share of guitar, but the rhythm section is killer on this one.

"Crisis 051209" opens with the sound of drums building as flute comes in quickly. Heaviness with guitar a minute in. Nice. A calm with flute 2 minutes in followed by riffs as it gets heavy again. I should mention that they divide this song into 5 sections called 1- Exit 2- Crisis 3- Exit 4- Crisis 5- Exit. So yes the calm and heavy parts trade off throughout. I like the fat bass 4 minutes in followed by chaos and dissonance. And the ripping guitar after 9 1/2 minutes. Oh my ! "Ressentiment" opens with drums and bass as guitar arrives quickly and tastefully. Not for long though as heavy riffs follow. Flute comes and goes. Scorching guitar 1 1/2 minutes in. Heavier riffs before 3 minutes. The tempo then slows down as bass and drums provide a lot of bottom end. The tempo picks back up before 7 minutes and it sounds great ! "I Found A Deep Dark Hole And I Am Going To Jump In !" seems like a long song title but it's only a small part of the title that goes on for 12 lines ! It's like they tell a short story with this song title. Drums, bass and trumpet lead the way early. Flute arrives. Prominant bass 2 1/2 minutes in as guitar comes in and plays over top. Drums are pounding as the guitar starts to light it up big time. It sounds like synths are firing off. Trumpet is back 6 1/2 minutes in.

"Lethe" sounds great to begin with as the guitar, bass, flute and drums all shine. The drums and bass are relentless. The flute and guitar come and go. The tempo picks up 3 1/2 minutes in and it sounds amazing ! Heavy soundscape 7 1/2 minutes in. "Shell" for me is clearly the best track. The first time I heard the intro I got so excited as only a prog-head could. The style of the flute playing along with the mellotron samples brought SINKADUS immediately to mind. The guitar comes in throwing it's weight around. Flute takes over a minute in. More mellotron 2 1/2 minutes in. Lots of flute follows until we get some atmospheric guitar around 5 minutes. It's heavy 6 minutes in. How incredible is this ? Percussion 8 minutes in. Blistering guitar after 9 minutes. Then 15 minutes in we get that SINKADUS flavour. Yes ! "Tautrogy" is the shortest song at under 4 minutes. Drums open and a full sound follows quickly with flute of course. Guitar, synths and mellotron are all part of this closing track.

A solid 4 star album, and really you can't go wrong with either of their first two recordings.