Some more varied CD tips for this spring.
Imperial Triumphant - Goldstar
Imperial Triumphant are playing this year's Complexuty Festival and I hope to be there. When I saw a clip of hotel Sphinx passing by and understood a new album was on the way I ordered same without much diving into the band. Now Imperial Triumphant play avantgarde metal of the black kind. To say listening to this album the first time was not an easy ride is a tremendous understatement. Now I am some 5 playings further down the line and I start getting half of the album. Nine songs of which Newyorkcity is just a short noise and Goldstar a cigarette commercial going back to the cover of the album, including warning sticker. I am not sure still what to think of this album as a total and you can't play it at teh background really. The live show shall tell me more I guess.
Saor - Amidst the Ruins
Picking up an album after a live show always holds that risk of shall it be as good when playing on much lower volumes at home? Well in the case of Saor's Amidst the Ruins I did not need to worry. While at the show the flute and bagpipes looked very present on album they are blended in so naturally that you won't hear them dominating at all. As than also the music tells us long stories with moody music as basis it all gets rather interesting. Maybe not as good as last year's Sgaile album, but definitely one I shall return to often. Maybe also not on sunny springdays like today, but when autumn comes we have a soundtrack. Great band I shall follow from now on.
Tiktaalika - Gods of Pangea
I follow Charlie Griffith since in 2004 Linear Sphere released Reality Dysfunction. Than of course he became one of the two guitars in Haken and their albums always are daring to go different ways. I don't know why I did not pick up his solo album Tiktaalika in 2022. Now he called the band Tiktaalika and released an album that surely shall end very high on my end of year list. If you know Haken and their quirkiness scares you, don't worry. Just look at the cover, which makes you expecting a thrash metal album. And that is what we mostly get, while guitar lovers also are in for a treat. This album holds eihgt songs of which one is instrumental. The vocalists are all doing a great job and I know them from their dayjobs at Textures/Crown Compass, Organized Chaos, Protest the Hero and BTBAM. I do not have a specific favourite track, but for thrash I guess the title track is a gem. For trhashy progmetal lovers Mesozoic Mantras is a must hear. This album is so good from start to finish, that we can only hope for a tour one day.
Steven Wilson - The Overview
Steven Wilson is back and the whole nerdy prog side of the internet already gave an opinion on that. So I can add very little new. Starting with the positive I do like this album. Actually I did not buy his previous two solo albums, but after listening to Objects Outlive Us online I immediately bought the Overview. Two songs make this album, even if both being split up in parts. I prefer the first song slightly as it reminds me of old Porcupine Tree. The spoken word by his wife present in second epic The Overview does not disturb me that much. Actually I should have Tiago read the lyrics and see what he makes of it as a mathematician/physicist. I am more drawn to the mondane of Objects Meanwhile. I shall not be around when Steven Wilson plays The Netherlands, but I understood he shall play this album in full, next to old Porcupine Tree songs and more recent solo work. That can become interesting I guess. This is probably his best album since Hand.Cannot.Erase, so if scared away over the past years, check this one out.
