If ever there was a time to stop doing track-by-track album reviews it would be now, with the album New World by Dave Kerzner. The Deluxe Edition of this album, as I have right here contains 23 tracks, with a total running time of over 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Now at first, some might wonder what Dave Kerzner is (a few less after the good review this album received over the past 6 month, but still). Dave has been involved in music since he was quite young, but didn’t get around to getting a record deal when he wanted to start a career in music. [acfw id=2]

Instead, he founded Sonic Reality, the renowned company that creates MIDI samples from original instruments, so that they can be used in synthesizers. Doing this helped him to not only make a living, but also create a huge network of artists, some recording samples others using them. This, and being a more than decent keyboard player himself, caused him to be able to work with people rating from Beyonce to Neil Peart and from Madonna to Jon Anderson.

This huge network of artists plays a role on his debut solo album New World as well. Besides drummer Nick D’Virgilio and guitar/bass player Fernando Perdomo, with home Kerzner forms the core band for the album, 18 other musicians play their parts on different tracks. They all seem to have a relation with bands that have influenced Kerzner over time: Pink Floyd, Genesis, Spock’s Beard, Yes, … As such, expect to find names like Lorelei and Durga McBroom, Billy Sherwood, but als Keith Emerson on the guest list.

The music on the album is a similar mix of influences, taking the listener from a Pink Floyd/David Gilmour opening to Genesis land and on to Yes oceans. At some point, I even heard hints of Rush mixed with Great Gig In The Sky singing by one of the McBroom sisters. It’s never a straight copy, but a modernised use of sounds and styles, that somehow works out really well. It’s not renewing per se, but certainly an eclectic mix of good things if ever there was one, and musically executed without flaws.

Production wise, the mix does appeal to my ears, although the bass is often a bit hidden underneath the keyboards. These same keyboards also seem to be the cause of some of the tracks being a tad too loud, forcing me to turn down the volume. Overall, it works fine at slightly lower volume.

This album rocks and is a musical journey for those willing to spend 2.5 hours listening intently. For the less patient once, I’d recommend getting the regular, 78 minute edition instead.

Rating

This is the first album that is being subject to a rating on this site (although I will go into the back catalog of reviews soon to rate those as well). The way I rate is not by giving a single score, but rather focusing on a few different areas. That will be explained later this week in a separate blog post.

A few months ago, I got sent an album by Serbian band Alogia, called Elegia Balcanica. I hadn’t heard of the band before, and was surprised to learn that their guitarist Srdjan Brankovic is behind Expedition Delta, a musical project that involves or has involved quite a few renowned musicians, like Erik Norlander (Rocket Scientists), Rene Merkelbach (Ayreon) and Gary Wehrkamp (Shadow Gallery) that found a place in my music collection ages ago.

In Alogia, Srdjan plays together with his brother Miroslav (guitar), Vladimir Ranisavljevic (bass), Srdjan Golubica (drums), and vocalist Nikola Mijic. [acfw id=2]

Keyboards and synths are played by Vladimir Djedovic, who unfortunately had to leave the band after recording the album to pursue other activities.

These six musicians delivered an album with powerful metal that shows both great musicianship and a couple of very clear influences.  Sometimes there’s a hint of early ’90s progressive metal, then power metal, and always two guitars and a keyboard ready to add some fast, whirling or mixed melodies over the metronomic rhythm guitar and drums. The high pitched vocals are well executed, although the Serbian lyrics may be a bit of a hurdle for an international audience.

On the album, this leads to a mixed variety of tracks. On tracks like Almagest, Callis Ad Astra and Galija we find rhythmic riffing that reminds of early 80s prog metal (Dream Theater) mixed with late 80s melodic keyboards and guitars (Halloween, Gamma Ray). In other places, the prog metal element disappears in favour of power metal, which is the case on Vreme je and the title track Elegia Balcanica.

Of a completely different nature are the tracks Us Tisini, which is slower and more keyboard heavy than the rest of the album and Intentionally Blind, a thrash metal bordering track. The latter is a worthy tribute to Death founder Chuck Shuldiner, who died of cancer in 2001.

Production wise, the album could have benefited from a slightly lighter mix. The bass is hard to be found, because the low end is dominated by drums, keyboard and rhtyhm guitar, and the drums sound a bit ‘woody’ in places.

Overall, this is a well executed power metal album, by a capable band, but with room for improvement. Given that this is the bands fourth album, and especially the previous two received good reviews, there is more to check out than just this one for who’s really interested.

Drifting Sun are a band that escaped my attention, because their first two albums were released during a period in which I hardly listened to any music apart from what happened to be on mainstream radio. Had they not released a new album this year, I would probably not have missed them for quite a while, because they are not among the bands that are mentioned on a daily basis. Now that they did release an album, and I have heard of them, I may was well tell the world how I feel about it. [acfw id=2]

Listening to the album it is clear that the band knows how to build up a song. The title track Trip the Light Fantastic opens the album with piano and high pitched but clean vocals. It fills up with the other instruments over the first half and becomes more guitar driven in the second half – until the piano returns. A similar build up is found in Five Fever, but here the first half is mainly piano and synths.

Completely different to this are The Wizard (with a 70s hard rock feel in the guitar playing, and matching vocals) and  the Pendragon like Tormented (fiery guitar opening, prominent bass and keyboards in the vocal parts).

Lady Night and The Last Supper are two longer tracks. The former has great vocal work and pulsing keyboard in places, and seems to be mixed slightly different than the rest of the album (bass and keyboards stand out a bit more).

Last Supper also has a pulsing riff at it’s center, but much more prominent than Lady Night. The guitar and organ really work together here, not surprisingly many reviews of this album compare this to old Deep Purple work. There’s a lot more going on in this somewhat haunting track than I want to explain here – it’s ‘hearing is believing’ I think.

A separate mention goes to the four short tracks that separate the longer ones. Peach Blossoms and Sunsets are the first two, which have a slightly classical feel to them. The have to bow for the other two though. Ode to Nevermind has a great (electric and acoustic) guitar and bass interplay, and XXX Forever reminds me in a way of a certain Mr. Hackett and Mr. Banks. Without these short interludes this would be a completely different album.

Summarising, this album is very likely not the most renewing thing in the world of rock. That’s no disqualification though, because I’ve heard more quite appealing ‘retro’ albums over the past six to nine months. Retro is perhaps not even the right word, the band makes music in a style that has been around since early Marillion, Pendragon and other similar bands, but despite an occasional hint to even older times, with a modern touch to it. The compositions work, the vocals are absolutely great and I love the keyboard work. A worthy album to include in 2015s collection.

Moon burn are an Indian band, which just released their debut EP, entitled Null Abstract. The EP consists of 5 tracks, four of which have a length of around 6 minutes, the last one (the title track) being a little bit shorter. [acfw id=2]

All tracks are build around a guitar tune, and keyboards and the rest of the instruments merge around that. The songs all have something of repetitive theme in them in the vocal parts, which makes them a little boring, and an instrumental midsection in which especially the skills of the guitarists shows through.  The lead vocals are a bit similar on all tracks, and seem to lack bit of emotion, which is only partly compensated by the well performed backing vocals.

Looking at the individual tracks, I think Sono Luminescence works best. On this track, the balance between the instruments works best, and it has the best structured instrumental midsection of the five. Wonderlust on the contrary seems to be a rather simple rock song in the end, the attempt to build a ‘soundscape’ is overpowered by the guitar and doesn’t work for me. The title track is shorter and also musically different from the other tracks. With spoken rather than sung vocals, and a somewhat psychedelic keyboard tune over a pulsing guitar and drum rhythm it works really well. A bit more variation in the other tracks would’ve made this a better debut, but the listening to the individual instruments and the crisp mix, this band certainly has potential.

The album is available from iTunes, Spotify, Amazon and more online stores.

The unexpected sometimes happens at the most unexpected moment. I guess that’s the nature of the unexpected… After two years, Corvus Stone came up with a new album in September last year, which proved to be a step up from their first. Unexpectedly, they show up now now with  a a new album again, only 9 months later: Corvus Stone Unscrewed. Not an entirely new album in terms of music, but a combination of new tracks, extended versions of tracks from the first two albums and remixes of some more. The remixing has been an effort by Colin Tench, who spent months getting the sound he was looking after hearing the bands own works so often.  [acfw id=2]

A great sound – unlike some album I reviewed earlier this year, the music is not compressed, all instruments are easily heard and distinguished, and the balance in volume across tracks is never lost.  Forgive me if that sounds like trying to sell the album, I was in the position to hear some early mixes and comment on those, and I really do like the sound of this album. Note that in reaction the loudness war, Colin made sure this album is everything but loud and has a dynamic range of 13.

One thing is clear from these new mixes, that may have gone slightly unnoticed on the first two albums. Corvus Stone has an amazing bass player in Petri Lindström. He is very much present on this album, without ever dominating the sound, but playing much more than standard bass lines at the same time. This is most clear on Horizon and Joukahainen without Chips.

As said, the album is a mix of remixed, revised and new tracks. Amongst the remixes we find Horizon and Moustaches from Massachussetts, two tracks that breath energy albeit in a slightly different manner. Horizon  is a bright, energetic rock track with nice percussion and an uncountable bass led midsection, while Moustaches is, being almost danceable, probably the predecessor of Scandinavians in Mexico from Corvus Stone II. In both cases, comparing the old and new mixes is worthwhile and will end in favour of the new mixes I’m sure. The same applies to the uncontrollably weird composition JussiPussi, with Murky Red master mind Stef Flaming as the main composer and performer.  After Solstice was also remixed, and the drums were re-recorded by Robert Wolff, creating an improved version of this track on which the instruments seem to go everywhere but always stays together.

In the revised and new sections, the most outstanding tracks are Early Morning Calls and Scary Movie Too.

Early Morning Calls, is an extended version of Early Morning Call, with changed guitar parts and extended with vocals – by Sean Filkins and Phil Naro. These changes make it into a different, possibly better, but still recognisable version of this waltz in 6/8.

Scary Movie Too, an extended version of Scarie Movie is so far my favourite on this album. It’s not all that much better than the rest, but it stands out because it sounds as if it’s recorded by a band playing together in a studio. That is impossible in case of Corvus Stone, due to geographical issues separating Mexico from the rest of the universe, but somehow the band managed to get that feel into the track. A feel that mixes well with the slightly haunting atmosphere of of the movie. An atmosphere also portrayed by the crow on the cover, an other MSPaint (!) masterpiece by covergirl Sonia Mota.

Lost and Found revisited, with Blake Carpenter, which now is much longer than on the original album. The new mix, the marching drums and the vocal melody provided by Blake are a very tasty combination. The split in two of Cinema (Petrified in the Cinema Basement and Cinema Finale) are remixed really well, and the real drums by Robert are added prove to be a good move. The hint to the name of the bass player in the first of these two tracks is no accident either.

Then there are four completely new tracks on the album, starting with the opening track Brand New Day, with a pulsing rhythm guitar joining the drums and a melodic baseline. The track Joukahainen without Chips (how’s that for a typical CS title) has a guitar in it that reminded me of Gary Moore’s track Dunluce, which predates his blues escapades. Long, whining notes combined with short melodies, over a once again flawless bassline and a mattress of keyboards by Pasi Koivu.

Landfill, just like Joukahainen with guest drummer Paul Marshall, has a synth and guitar opening that makes it almost a ballroom dance tune. However, soon enough it becomes clear that all the funny noises that the band is so proud of come together in this track. Go find an list them all, there may be a prize involved…

To close if off, Pack up your Truffles is a slightly different beast, an island off peace to end the album (if not counting bonus track Moustaches). A guitar lead that stays low key, limited percussion and other accompaniment show the jazzy side of Corvus Stone.

So, with 4 new tracks, 9 revised tracks and a playing time of just under 50 minutes, Corvus Stone have managed to produce another album within 9 months from the previous release. One very much worth getting. Even if not every track is new, they all sound new and fresher than on the first two albums. The album is available from the band’s bandcamp page from  June 29th, for free to those who have bought the first two albums. From July 28th, it will be on sale to the general public. Go get it – this is a good introduction to a somewhat special (in many ways) band.

When I first heard Pendragon, they had just released Kowtow. A good album, but not all that exciting to me at the time. Years later, they made (and I heard) The Masquerade Overture, and I was more interested. In 2007, I saw them at Symforce, a festival in Tilburg in The Netherlands, and I enjoyed their show quite a bit – not in the least because the band breathed energy on stage. However, I didn’t really follow them, and apparently they changed their style a bit – or rather, band leader Nick Barrett changed his style quite a bit. On 2014’s Men Who Climb Mountains, the openness and energy of earlier albums has been replaced by a darker form of music that is still interesting, but very different from what I’ve heard in the past. Yet, I like it. [acfw id=2]

The opening track Belle Ame is a shorted electric guitar and vocal piece, with a dark touch to it. It becomes a bit more melodic near the end and functions as an intro to the follow up Beautiful Soul. At the start of that track, the tempo is increased and the other instruments join the guitar into a song that wonders about the future of a beautiful should (‘Who’s going to save you?’). The keyboards of Clive Nolan seem to play their own, fitting tune in the background, and the multi-layered chorus adds to the atmosphere.

On Come Home Jack, the intro is again a picked electric guitar, and the vocals are full of melancholy and emotion. This melancholic feeling flows into a guitar solo half way, with a prominent bass and drum joining in. From there, things speed up, until at 2/3 of the song we slow down again and go back to only the picked electric guitar. The keyboards join in at the end, to close up the final verse.

On In Bardo, the mood changes to a more postive, less dark feel. The track is more rocky and contains a keyboard and (Gilmouresque) guitar solo, both played by Nick Barrett himself. Actually, a lot of keyboard work on this album is played by him, with keyboard wizard Clive Nolan only filling in the remaining parts (and happily so, according to the band blog).

Faces of Light start quietly with only a piano, and gradually builds up to a full rock track. The multi-layered chorus (a Pendragon treat) works really well, but the song as a whole doesn’t really stick with me. It’s counterpart Faces of Darkness does, building up from keyboard and piano to a more metallic sound, with a bit of jazz metal influence in it and a few fitting guitar solos.

What is unclear is whether these Faces of Darkness are the faces of zombies, but they do appear in For When the Zombies Come. The keyboards start and are joined by a guitar lead that reminds me briefly of the ‘surf’-sound, but with a less happy feeling attached. The music goes into a slighly psychedelic mode, with slow, melodic vocals. It breathes admiration for David Gilmour, one of Barret’s favourite guitarists apparently. Again a track that sticks with me.

It is followed by Explorers of the Infinite which features acoustic guitar, keyboard and again a layered chorus. On this one, Barrett sings at what seems the edge of his reach, but without going out of key. The bass, a picked electric guitar and drums work really well here. The acoustic guitar comes back at the end to close things off, before we go to Netherworld. That is a slightly bombastic, almost symphonic track, with yet again a keyboard solo by Nick Barrett. Looking at the fact that the man wrote all songs, and played all important guitar and keyboard parts, this may be considered a Nick Barrett solo album – but as he says himself on his web site, it’s more convenient to use the Pendragon name. After all, he co-founded that band in 1978 and stayed with it until today.

This, as I wrote in the beginning, is not what fans of The Masquerade Overture or other older works of Pendragon may expect. The differences that are present between those albums and this one apparently started appearing on 2008’s Pure and 2011’s Passion, which I haven’t heard so far. Still, I find this a album worthy of listening and definitely a good item in the Pendragon catalog.