FIREWORKER

I remember the buzz about this band around 2007 on here and the frustration that none of the North American vendors carried their music. I ended up getting a cdr of "Night" from a buddy in The Netherlands before their music was finally made available over here. So I have their 2005 "Firebird", 2007 "Night", 2009 "Tick Tock" and 2010 "Missa Atropus" before I bailed and waited to hear if they did anything close to "Night" which is by far their best recording. In fact if I hadn't have played it a couple of months ago I probably wouldn't have taken a chance on this their latest studio album from 2020. This may go down as my most regrettable purchase since getting back into the game. It's been a long time since I've popped a cd out because I didn't have the patience but that happened.

One thing that made this different was the choir that comes and goes on that 19 1/2 minute opener "Space Cowboy" and the next track "Hourglass". There is nothing in the liner notes that even mentions them let alone gives a credit. That opener is a long one and a little too sparse at times. It did get surprisingly heavy after 9 minutes. "Hourglass" is close to being ballad-like with the piano and vocals but then the choir replaces the vocals followed by the choirs being replaced by violin. I don't like the title track. Just a little too commercial sounding and the drums sound bad. "Antique" is another relaxed tune with vocals and atmosphere although we get some brief power after 5 minutes. "Sapien" ends it and again mellow stuff but with brief outbursts that come and go. There's vocals and not much else after 11 minutes before picking up some late without vocals.

Man this was so hard to get through but I'm at least thankful that I own "Night" a very special recording. This one went over my head.