SEVEN CHAMBERS

UNITOPIA are essentially the duo of vocalist Mark Trueack and keyboardist Sean Timms and what they have done is invite musicians into their fold to help fill out the sound. So every album has a different lineup and they began with their debut back in 2005 and had four studio albums out by 2012 then the long break. Eleven years later comes the double album "Seven Chambers".

This band is from Australia and on this latest they have added some "names". I don't know guitarist John Greenwood who is from the UK but he apparently was a surgeon and contributed to the related lyrics here that I'll get to later. But I do know violinist Steve Unruh and of course drummer Chester Thompson who is on one track from disc one and all of disc two. Body Green is the drummer for the other tracks. Bass player Alphonso Johnson take a bow. Two Jazz legends but this music is not Jazz.

This is more Eclectic I suppose. Symphonic and Heavy at times, bordering on Metal for some brief moments. I thought of Neal Morse's early solo stuff where he is Symphonic at times but then it turns heavy but like here the emphasis is on the concept or the story. And yes it's a bold move to make a concept album about things no one wants to talk about let alone experience. Cancer, heart attacks, strokes what you should eat and shouldn't during a dance-like section was a little disturbing. The pictures in the liner notes of people grieving in hospitals or in the hospital beds themselves all hooked up with tubes.

I don't know but for people who are into concept albums(I'm not) this is a tough sale. This is their lowest rated album on RYM but here it's crazy high before my review at 4.2 stars, in my opinion of course. It is disappointing that Thompson and Johnson aren't all over this instead of the vocals but I get it. I'm not into Unruh's style bringing KANSAS to mind instead of Cross, Ponty, Urbaniac or Goodman but man he can play. Disc one is just under 45 minutes and disc two at just under 38 minutes so an old school double right here. Honestly I did give this a chance with multiple listens but for me it's all about the instrumental music which seems to be second to the lyrics here.

So many highs, so many lows. One track that stood out was "Mania" and it's divided into three parts but like the recording it is hit and miss as I have trouble with part 2 but enjoy the other two parts a lot. "Helen" is a tribute to a lady who had a lot of health problems as a child but she went on to advance the field of medicine in a big way. "Bittersweet" is my least favourite. So a lot of negative stuff here lyrically but they have tried to put a positive spin on them I'll give them that.

Obviously a lot of Prog fans love this one and I'm glad for that because this recording would have taken a lot of time and money to create. 3 stars.