Andrew Danso

1. Devin Townsend Project – Ki (Hevy Devy, 2009)

2. Cynic - Traced In Air (Season of Mist, 2008)

3. Meshuggah – I (Fractured Transmitter, 2004)

4. Celtic Frost – Monotheist (Century Media, 2006)

5. Opeth – Deliverance (Koch, Music For Nations, 2002)

6. Virus – The Black Flux (Season of Mist, 2008)

7. The Faceless – Planetry Duality (Sumerian Records, 2008)

8. Steven Wilson – Insurgentes (KScope, 2008)

9. Jimmy Ågren – Various Phobias (Garageland Records, 2008)

10. Decapitated – Organic Hallucinosis (Earache, 2006)

My most anticipated for 2011: Devin Townsend Project - g h o s t

Powerplay issue #129

It’s one thing to boast fancy production as a selling point for your album, but when it backfires, those preconceptions are catastrophic. This was mastered at the Cutting Room, Stockholm Sweden, (the big boys such as Opeth, Paradise Lost, and Gorgoth all go here for mastering too) yet the entire album sounds cluttered, the vocal is muddled inside guitar frequencies, the guitars themselves sound muddy and the drums feel sticky, as if a machine has just been plotted to rhythmically accompany the riffing.

The music itself is a mash up of progressive death metal. Of the Archangel claim exotic metal an appropriate tagline, but this is far more of the icy uninspired Scandinavian type, than anything of South American origin, and therein lies their problem. All of this misdiagnosis is relevant to the entire release, in that it’s supposed to be something completely different. This is supposed to be an artistic, emotive, punchy and atmospheric conceptual album based on a spiritual book, but on playback this is just another metal album based on a spiritual book, and that’s about it. The Brazilian quartet sound ideas right the way through, but they’re only ideas and are in need of some sort of post-production input. They lack the nous to pull off the widescreen landscape sound, they desperately want to achieve, and slump into a brand of metal that doesn’t have anywhere near the bite it ought to.

5/10 Powerplay issue #129

It’s difficult to understand what Virus are really about. Their first instalment “Carheart” was an art-house auteur, quirky and manic as you like, with the sounds of spoons, crazed yelps and a Toyota Hiace laden everywhere. “The Black Flux” was an insight into doomsday, a reflection that the world was going to hell in a handcart. So, where does “The Agent That Shapes The Desert” sit? It wants to find that middle ground between the manic and depressive, or fleet between the two – and it does this very well.

If you throw enough at a target, you’ll eventually hit the bullseye, and this is exactly what Virus has tried on their third release. It pans off in familiar territory, from quirks to obscurity, mania and humour, dark and light, and it’s not surprising that such a talented bunch can mould all of the said themes, into a coherent avant-garde record. But, because this is the sum of previous parts, The Agent... isn’t near as powerful as The Black Flux, or as broad minded as Carheart, and it’s not meant to be. This is a much more restrained outing, demonstrating that Virus are now comfortable in between their doomsday mania, and it’s nothing short of joyous.

9/10 Powerplay issue #129

If you glance at “Reflected’s” album artwork you’ll notice a question mark slap bang in the middle. This may well be a cryptic message from the band themselves, telling us ‘We don’t know what we want this to be’, to which we aptly reply ‘we know you know that’. “Reflected” is an album hopelessly confused. It doesn’t know whether to be artrock for a few minutes, light hearted Saga the next, and the neoproggy Marillion thereafter – it is all these things and none, that’s ultimately a trivialised reflection looking down memory lane.

Despite its progressive stamp, “Reflected’s” direction comes entirely from the vocal, performed by the newly recruited Janine Pusch, and this is the records biggest pitfall. Pusch’s lead role appears to be as free as possible, disregarding key change, track complexion, choruses and energy – it rubs off as if she’s singing in the Tub, with no sense of track playback. The music isn’t great either. If you nitpick, you can find coherency here and there, but otherwise it’s a complete long winded mess, with guitars conflicting against the vocal and wish wash production to match. The biggest thing reflected on Central Park’s second release is age, and confirms that this is a breed of progressive rock, dying out for the better.

3/10 Powerplay issue #129

If you’re a retrograde artist, surely nostalgia should be taken with a pinch of salt, because whilst InVertigo are clearly a very good prog pop bunch, it’s difficult to take this brand of rock that’s so clichéd, so wrapped within 80’s sensibilities, at full face value.

The technical quality of the German five piece is irrefutable, as they ascend and descend from rock progressions and vocally lead choruses to massive instrumentals, something that their pioneers Yes would be proud of. If you could justify that Liquid Tension Experiment’s progressive soap box was in some way palatable, then InVertigo might have a chance. For everyone else, try not to vomit on the way out.

6/10 Powerplay issue #129

Katanga, guilty as charged, are a borrowing act. Borrowing in the sense that they’ve roamed across the goth rock genre, and simply lifted the best parts of said populous acts, pieced these sections side by side, and released “Moonchild” with different artsy track names. Yep, that’s cynical, but nowhere near as cynical as releasing an entire album built on rebooting several franchises in order to sell a couple of CD’s. No doubt, you’ll get this same review next month.

The outcome is obvious: German band does Ramstein, Manson, and Fear Factory, sells a few CD’s and plans the sequel. The worst truth about “Moonchild” is that since Katanga have stuck so rigidly with the source material, it's actually an excellent goth rock record. It has an edge, an industrial swagger, and the mandatory Type O Negative similarities throughout its length, that give these German headbangers a sense of false premise, and copycat exploitation. Don’t expose a goth-rock virgin to Katanga’s second release, they’d instantly fall in love, and that would be the worst crime Katanga could commit… putting copyright aside.

5/10 Powerplay issue #129