On their new album Close Your Eyes to Travel, the band spices up its post-rock with excursions into jazz, math rock, and more. The result is an earthier, more motley take on the genre.Read the full review by Ben Salmon at portlandmercury.com
“Out of the Ether” kicks off with the metronomic throb of “Dirt In My Mind’s Eye”, setting the stage for the album’s 5 tracks of minimal, droning ambience, overtaken at times by Nickles’ wailing, saxophone skronk; a mixture of the soulful runs of The Stooges’ Steve McKay & the no-wave stabs of James Chance. “Steely Eyed Missile Man” picks up the pace, with a four-on-the-floor drive underneath Provenzano’s guttural basslines. “Bloodborne Hate and Black Book Mass” and side one closer “I Turned To The Mirror” add the industrial menace of Cabaret Voltaire to a locked-in groove and lysergicly introspective lyrics. Album closer “A Whole New Jupiter” takes up all of the LP version’s side two, slingshotting the listener over the event horizon and thru the center of a sonically sculpted black hole, it’s relentless motorik dirge evolving over the course of the track’s 19-minute runtime into an abstract pulse before lurching back into the groove, riding it into the sun.Media/Samples
Broken Figurines features a mix of various political and personal themes backed by a progressive rock approach. It includes a mix of hard rock, acoustic pieces, piano ballads, and light electronic bits.Media/Samples
Seven years after Cold Comfort the style did not change a lot, so fans of that album will like this new one also. The tracks sound very mature and are well written and have a kind of depth in them. The songs are diverse in style and sound dark and drooling and with a keen production done by the band you hear a lot of details (headphone material).Read the full review by Reinier de Vries at powerofmetal.dk
Marjan her singing has also improved and fans of Anneke van Giersbergen will certainly enjoy her voice. The style of each song differs a lot, from dark sounding melancholy songs, to rocking tracks with hammond organ. Talking about the keyboards, they are one of the highligths here.
“Lucillo & Giada“ is a real concept album and in fact a song of 44 minutes that is divided into parts that seamlessly flow into each other. It has more influences of folk and classical music. Personally I am more convinced by the second album “Topos Würlenio“ which includes loads of keyboards and has more a Symphonic and/or Progressive Rock atmosphere.Read the full review by Douwe Fledderus at progvisions.nl
Layered, atmospheric laden keyboards driven passages is probably the most dominant trait throughout this album, both as shorter mood and atmospheric laden interludes but also as parts, and often substantial at that, of the longer compositions. A certain dream-like atmosphere runs like a red thread throughout this CD, and given it's name and background I'd remark that in this particular context, this is a case of mission accomplished. That the album contains some rather fine arrangements is also noted.Read the full review by Olav Martin Bjørnsen at progressor.net's facebook
‘three’ has all the hallmarks of the first two ESP releases, with Tony's symphonic compositions and arrangements weaving in and out of evocative and passionate vocal sections, delivered with both sensitivity and power in all the right places by Damien Child, an accomplished actor and singer with many years experience in TV, Radio and West End Theatre.Media/Samples
Elkhsha carry to the table a mixture of progressive rock and progressive metal, often shifting gears from one to the other to suit a track’s individual needs. Keeping in line with the concept of maintaining dominant tones, the rock aspects tend to enter the fray with grace, accompanied by gentle acoustic strumming and delicate-but-purposeful clean vocals, whereas the group’s heavier persona rampages about under the cover of melodious riffs and harsh inflections characterized by a raw delivery. Journeying through the sonic landscape laid down by these elements directs voyagers across calm waters and over treacherous cliffs; for instance, the album’s lead in— “Strange Waves” and the subsequent “Letting Go of Defeat”—pair off naturally within this methodology.Read the full review by MarsKid at sputnikmusic.com
Fractal Guitar features the atmospherically dense, polyrhythmic tapestry for which is Sonar is well known, but focuses much more on the sonic and ambient possibilities of the electric guitar. In the liner notes, Stephan Thelen writes : “After a few years of playing without effects apart from reverb in Sonar, I felt the urge to compose and record some pieces in which effects were an integral part of the music. I especially wanted to use an effect I worked with before Sonar, which I call “Fractal Guitar” — a rhythmic delay with a very high feedback level that creates cascading delay patterns in odd time signatures such as 3/8, 5/8 or 7/8. The other desire I had was to work with and to have some serious fun with a few of the many great guitarists I've met over the years to create an album that features some of the more forward-looking possibilities of the most mysterious, compelling and eclectic of all instruments, the electric guitar. ”Media/Samples
