Yes - Mirror To The Sky (InsideOut Records) [Rich Piva]
It’s 2023 and we have a new Yes album! Prog nerds of the world unite, and I mean that in the most loving way I possibly can. Yes has a rabid and technically sound fan base, so I am sure new material will me those guys very happy. As a casual fan, I have always enjoyed Yes, but never dug way deep into their discography but what I have spent a lot of time with I always enjoy and frequently pull out my Yes records to go on those epic journeys they have always been so go at giving the fans. We are up to album 23 and the band looks much different from their origins for obvious reasons, but somehow Steve Howe and the latest incarnation of the band have produced a worthy record for their late career catalog, with a couple of hiccups, but overall, some solid Yes material.
I love the opening track, Mirror To The Sky, which Is one of their best songs of the last couple of decades. Jon Davison’s voice is eerily like what you would hear on the Yes hits they play on classic rock radio. Some great bass and guitar work on this track makes it the perfect opener. This album is so cleanly produced you could eat off it, but somehow it is not too much for me when it almost always is. The opener was nice and compact at just over five minutes, but this is Yes, so buckle up for some long ones. All Connected is next and is a nice one two punch to open, with some cool harmonies and interesting time changes that you come to expect from the band.
We start to get into some grandiose territory with the next track, Luminosity. Everything sounds clean and big on Mirror To The Sky, and this track is exhibit A. Nine minutes of excellent instrumentation that could have been five, but if you are listening to this album you know what you are getting yourself into. The production again really stands out on this track with everything that is going on. Mr. Howe is a mad scientist in the studio. The song, while big, is a bit on the lite side for me. There is really zero rock crunch on Mirror To The Sky, but that is just where we are at with the band at this point.
You almost get some rocking with Living Out The Dream which almost has a southern rock vibe to it. Nice track. The title track is a lot. Almost fourteen minutes long which some killer playing but somehow winds up sounding like a Disney soundtrack towards the end. Other standouts include Circles Of Time and Magic Potion, which are nice little Yes tunes, and by little, I mean under five minutes, with the latter having an almost jazzy feel to it.
At this point Yes fans should be happy with Mirror To The Sky. Is this something they will revisit often given there are 22 other albums out there of which 17-20 are better than this? Probably not. Is it a bit long? Of course it is, what band are we talking about again? But make no mistake, Yes is awesome, and they continue to provide their fans with new output that no one should be embarrassed about. Good stuff, especially for the rabid fans of the band. 7/10
Arrival Of Autumn - Kingdom Undone (Nuclear Blast) [Zak Skane]
Opening up this album is the classic 2000 technical metal era Scares which tears our faces off with thrashy galloping riffs, energy driven scank beats and crushing breakdowns that would please OG fans of the likes of Unearth and Sylosis. After their thrashy opening they shift their style to a more Djenty/mathy sound with tracks like Your Fiction and Ghosts which contains gut punching staccato riffs and technical grooves that would please any Periphery fan.
Vexing - Grand Reproach (Ordovician Records) [Mark Young]
Grand Reproach is the latest from Vexing, a progressive sludge trio from Denver. I don’t think I’ve heard much progressive sludge so let’s go. And we are off! The Mold comes in with a tight riffing structure, moving at a pace that is leans more to hardcore territory. You can hear the progressive nature of their attack very with little twists and turns as they chase the song to the end. This would be a great song to play, so much to do within it and it’s a promising start.
Vanquishing Light keeps this up, with another densely packed song that navigates its way across different structures and melody lines that takes a heavier, faster turn and turns it on its head. It’s dark and nasty and leads us into The Invisible Hand, with feedback filled start into minimal gain riffing churning out one of the most hummable lines in recent times. What is apparent is that when they approach a chorus or break the music in that piece is so different from what the main structure starts with, and its great to hear this being executed in this way.
Shallow Breath is low, stop/start riffs and is content just to grind away at you as it takes flight. Its manic yet controlled and another example of how well they change both gears and genres within the same song. Howling is an intermission piece, of sustained keys that could be at home in any Sci-fi film, but I don’t think it serves a purpose here other than to break the album up. It does segue into Blunderbuss which changes tack slightly, the vocal delivery is different as it comes more into the death side of things. Whilst we have that change, they are still consistent with taking you on a musical trip within the song, touching on different motifs and attacks: Fast, direct, slow, one sided but all good.
Small Black Flame is a direct attack, most conventional build of the songs so far, ascending movement and an incredible solo to the end that is manic and tasteful at the same time, completely fitting in with the whole body of the song. Red Skies and its again with that almost burrowing effect guitar that just tries to split your head open like a precise drill. Its all change again as the directional switch is pulled, trampling to the natural end of the album. Its like and then nothing like the songs that came before, which is exceptional.
I don’t know where the sludge part comes from, it’s likely that I am wrongly assuming that ‘sludge’ should sound like that aural equivalent of a thick, dense guitar sound that is capable of splitting the earth’s crust or that it moves at a pace similar to that of a sloth with nowhere to go. That is not the case here, they are heavy without ridiculous tunings, or 18 string guitars and it moves, it really does and live I think it would take on another identity, stomping the crowd into bits. 7/10
A Pretext To Human Suffering - Endless Cycle Of Suffering (Realtiy Fade Records) [GC]
After reading the press release for the debut album from A Pretext To Human Suffering, apparently I can hope to hear some technical and brutal death metal that promises ‘’superb levels of sheer musicality and skill, with the dedication to supreme heaviness which brings to life of the band’s horrifying, incisive vision and is the imaginative accomplishment of the song writing that results is an utterly magnificent album’’ big words for a debut and of course its time for me to see if they can back all this up.
Starting with the 5 second intro Indoctrination its falls onto Endless Cycle Of Suffering to kick things off properly and it kind of does and doesn’t really? It sort of lumbers along for the first minute or so not doing very much and when it does all explode into life it’s all a bit of a blur, it’s a shame the drums on this track are programmed because if this was a human I would be blown away! The rest is all very proficient tech death, but it just feels like its missing something to really kick it on, Architect Of Reality does fare slightly better as it doesn’t meander at all it just dives directly into the pummelling and ramps up the pace sufficiently to make you pay attention and has some really decent breakdowns included.
Then on Hollow Sanctuary the pace begins in a more slowed down fashion but, this time its adding to everything and that mixes well with the breakneck speed of the faster parts and there is even a healthy dose of atmospherics thrown into towards the end to add more depth and texture to the song which is a wise move, Formless Collective is another short, sharp shock type song that just explodes out of the speakers and the savages you all the way through.
Void then sort of suffers a mid-album slump, it’s just a bit meh? It all begins with low-down chug chug riffs that don’t really do much and when it does kick in it all just seems slightly aimless and doesn’t seem to go anywhere? Toxic Dreams is an atmospheric interlude that doesn’t really do very much to pick up the flow or pace and just gets in the way before Shadow Of Time bundles into the mix there’s some a nice mix of different guitar work here with squeaky pitch harmonics, mixed into the dense riffs and a solo thrown in for good measure, which is probably helpful as it makes what could have been a boring song, not so boring.
It’s now that I feel that they are losing some rhythm and flow but, Paradox does succeed in picking the pace back up and is probably the style they do best which is a full on tech death onslaught with no subtlety or mood setting just full on attack mode and they picked the right time for it here! Clandestine is more of the same and the pace even seems to be upped another notch and even the slowed down chug of the verse doesn’t take anything away from the brutal nature of this song just when it was all seeming to get slightly aimless, they have picked it right back up! Cult_ure then once again drops the pace down to a more mid-tempo stomp and probably has a more deathcore nature to the whole track and it’s a decent way to finish the album off.
Did they back up the hype from the press release? Not really for me, I must be honest and admit I didn’t really connect with this album, there were some good parts and some not so good parts, but I just couldn’t find that thing that really made me connect to what was on offer? As a debut I can say that it’s a job well done but in future I think they would need to offer more for me to really think they can push onto the next level. 6/10