YOU ARE LITERALLY A METAPHOR

Some of the strangest music I've ever heard, combining all kinds of synthesized electric guitar work and computer-glitch/noise like sounds with heavy, technically jaw-dropping stop-n-start music--and all from a trio! Some of it is like music intended as soundtrack to computer games that has gone wild and others like hyperactive traditional Middle Eastern folk-rock! And GREAT song titles!

1. "Sketches from a Blind Man" (7:29) great opening/opening song to lure listeners in: spacey eerie guitar-generated sound over chunky avant-garde bass and aggressive drums in an odd time signature. The eeirie lead guitar sound actually creates a repeatable melody that gets into your head and stays there. Lots of incidental computer-like sounds flitting in and out of the soundscapes. In the fourth minute, guitar sound drops an octave or two, tempo straightens out and bass sound and style also shift, as guitar melodies change, though also remaining engaging and interesting. The bass player is really good! Another sound change at 5:40 in guitar lead and drum-triggered bass before everybody kicks back into full octane to give one heck of a show for the final minute. (13.5/15)

2. "The One Who Knocks" (7:43) acoustic guitar (!) and high-end bass open this before drums kick in to signal shift into full song structure with chunky active bass and low-end guitar plucking. Around 0:50 there is another shift in sounds and structure with guitar producing more high end tremolo or e-bow solo melody-making. Some nice Latin chords and sounds in bridges and several sections. It's like being on a motorcycle taking a trip through some big city, witnessing the wide diversity in neighborhoods with each turn down different streets. "Trombone" sound generated by the guitar in scaled down fifth minute, shape-shifts into flugelhorn and then into MetalSantana for the sixth. Bass and drums go into wild frenzy at 6:15 to bridge to more melodic, high-powered final minute. (13.5/15)

3. "Unfulfilled and Alienated" (3:04) opens with launch into full-speed reminiscent of the classically-based power metal of Yngwie Malmsteen. The melodies are almost Gypsy/Eastern European/klezmer, the bass play just like Les Claypool. High skills on display here! (9/10)

4. "It is Known" (11:45) gentle two-note bass chord arpeggi and bare-bones drumming support another spacey guitar sound in the lead. The melodies played by the guitar in the first two minutes are very Hawaiian sounding. At the two minute mark a "chorus"/B section begins with more frenetic drum and bass play as guitar doubles up and plays a higher octave, more piercing sound for its voicing of the melody. The A-B cycle takes about 90 seconds to come around again, but then in the fifth minute the music drops into a spacious lounge-bluesy support mode as Jeff Beck-like guitar squeals and screams its slide-guitar-like swamp blues. The rhythm section intensifies a bit at the 6:00 mark before bridging into an all-out MAHAVISHNU jam. Wow! This guitarist can move! The bass player, too! Machine gun notes throughout the eighth minutes. I am totally caught by surprise and blown away! The eighth and ninth minutes see a trading off of rapid fire noodling between the bass player and the guitarist, the former at the high end of his instrument, the latter in the lower end of his. At 10:25 they come back together to support the recapitulation of the melody themes used in the first two sections to the finish. (22.5/25)

5. "They Call Him the Smiling Assassin" (7:29) opening like the introductory melding that occurs in a lot of Middle Eastern music, finally coming together at 0:35 to establish a very Middle Eastern sounding song. The instruments are playing in very syncopated, staccato, and unified fashion until a switch after 90 seconds in which the guitar begins to sound like a Middle Eastern violin. The pacing becomes almost a Wild West cadence as guitar changes and shifts his sound in ways that seem to mimic a variety of traditional Middle Eastern instruments--though, in the fourth minute he brings it all into the 21st Century with a highly synthetic sound. Then there is a quiet section in which guitar disappears and drums perform an interesting solo on "traditional" Middle Eastern percussion instruments. Then there is a wild and schizophrenic bass guitar solo in the sixth minute in which several lines (tracks?) are occurring simultaneously. More hand percussives in the seventh minute before an acoustic ME instrument rejoins and re-builds the comradery that the song opened with to the finish. (14/15)

6. "Misinterpretive Dance" (9:20) opens with an instrumental weave that displays some of the softer sounds and playing styles of the band members. Nice. Computer synth incidentals (from overdubs) begin making their appearances in the second minute as the second verse plays. Chorus in the third minute. The guitar sound and styling is quite reminiscent of some of AL DI MEOLA's Spanish-styled electric guitar sounds from early in his solo career. The music turns heavy with walls of sounds and PRIMUS-like humor in the music in third and fourth minutes before returning to a more steady jazz-metal sonic wall for the sixth. Odd rising guitar note in the seventh minute supports bass soloing before going bat-crazy in an Outer Limits synthesizer display while bass and drum frenzy. Things smooth out around 7:20 to return to the AL DI theme before shifting back into the SLEEPMAKESWAVES-like opening themes for the ninth minute and then going metal crazy in the final minute. (18/20)

7. "You Won a Goat!" (7:19) if Jeff Beck had been born in Harlem in the 1990s this is what he and his band may have sounded like. Again, Middle Easterns sounds, styles, and melodies seem prevalent here. It's as if the guitarist is trying to be both Jeff Beck, Jan Hammer, and Jean-Luc Ponty! (13.5/15)

8. "When You've Loved and Lost Like Frankie Has" (6:51) a This Is Spinal Tap reference (from the title)! The music opens like it's from a Hawaiian-Rastafarian ballad! So weird and surreal! (12/15)

9. "Enemies of magicK" (11:47) like a crazy ride inside a pinball machine! Definitely the song with the weirdest sound palette on the album. (21.75/25)

Total Time: 72:47

All stunningly performed songs with totally unpredictable flows and sound palettes, I'm just not sure I like it; I don't hate or dislike this music but my brain hurts!

4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of progressive rock music that I'm rating up for the fact that it truly lives up to the "progressive" aspect of our celebrated musical genre; Consider The Source is definitely pushing boundaries!