FUTURE RETRO SPASM

4.5 stars. This band has been functioning since 2003 and this is studio album number seven from 2010. From Croatia, Niko the guitarist/composer is the main musician here as this is his project. He's changed the lineup for every album up to this point. Still this record has connections to "Black Om Rising" mainly because of the sax and heavy, complex sound but there are differences. First Lovro the sax player is given much more freedom and prominence on here and the man is a little crazy. I mean dissonance is his middle name. In fact many tag this with Avant Jazz because of his work on here. The surprise was that psychedelic music on the first half of the 14 1/2 minute "The Abandoned World Of Automata". None of that psychedelia on "Black Om Rising" so that was a nice touch. I mean it just trips along mid- paced with that repeated guitar melody for 7 plus minutes. So good. By the way the sax player is on only three of their twelve studio albums.

This record is a blast from start to finish although the second last song "Death Star Narcolepsy" at over 9 1/2 minutes keeps me from giving that fifth star. By this point I'm not ready for the most intense song on the album, a relentlessly heavy and abrasive piece with maybe a couple of mini breaks from that. The closer "Quetzalcoatl" is the shortest but one of the better tracks at 3 minutes. It reminds me of KING CRIMSON's "Islands" with that sax and sound early on. Some amazing drum work on this one and throughout really. That was the one change from "Black Om Rising" a new drummer.

That opener "Olympos" is a killer at almost 9 minutes. A drum/bass intro as some industrial sounding sax joins in. Check out the drumming though. The sax starts getting dissonant then we hear a gong then here we go! Love the rest of this song as they hit us with a mid-paced, sax led beauty. Man this gets insane after 4 1/2 minutes, just some incredible intensity. The bass is crushing it. A calm around 6 1/2 minutes before an all out assault ends it. "G" is much like the opener and almost the same length. A catchy and heavy tune that is complex to boot. I mean check out the "Discipline" era KING CRIMSON style going on here but much heavier. The guitar ends up howling over top and the sax starts getting dissonant again late. More of all of this again on "Terenus Est" a track worth mentioning for sure and at 5 minutes a concise version of what went on before.

Not big on the inappropriate album covers, I get it, it's art but the music is what counts and this record is delivers in a huge way.