The album opens with an eerie drone, which basically serves as a gateway into the complex and deranged music Lilium Sova produces. A cello appears, right before the track 'Pakeneminen' blasts off in perfect post-hardcore meets mathcore and noise rock tradition, if such a thing exists. I can hear influences from acts like Godflesh, Zu and Converge but just as much hints of free jazz and the heavy jazz of acts like Dead Neanderthals.Read the full review at merchantsofair.com
Most the time the band crosses the line between Progressive Rock and Metal, and addition of saxophone is definitely one of the biggest, if not biggest, selling points for this record.Read the full review at rockingcharts.com
The album is about an hour long, and it includes seven songs. The sixth, self-titled track is the centrepiece, being the longest piece here, clocking over 27 minutes. That kind of gives you an idea about how important this song is for the band. It is easy to notice how much effort was put into creating this song; it comes in slowly, it features interesting keyboard arrangements, flute, saxophone and perfect vocal execution. This lengthy suite is a great fusion of stylistically different elements ranging from prog metal, jazz fusion, ambient, to classic rock, folk, power metal, and even more than that. Masterfully crafted and executed passages, well-thought guitar and sax solos, joyous rhythmic changes. This description actually explains sums it very well about the record as a whole.
"Kodama" the fifth album from Blackgaze pioneers, Alcest, marks the French duo's ferocious return to the stylistic maximalism of its early albums while continuing the band's relentless pursuit for new sounds and fresh ideas.
"Kodama" is the Japanese word for 'tree spirit' and 'echo' and from the album's structure and dynamics to its cinematic sound, "Kodama" indeed 'echoes' Alcest's 2010 classic, "Écailles De Lune". But this is no simple back-to-the-roots album: the band has more punch, rhythm and organic feel than ever before. While clearly influenced by bands like The Smashing Pumpkins, Tool, Dinosaur Jr, Grimes and The Cure, "Kodama" ultimately reveals itself as Alcest's 'Japanese album', drawing substantial inspiration from Japanese art and culture.
Originally triggered by Hayao Miyazaki's anime film "Princess Mononoke", "Kodama" picks up on the fate of its protagonist and, at its core, deals with the sensation of not belonging; of living in between worlds, be it city and nature or the physical and spiritual one. Duality is also crucial for the visual approach of the album, realized by French graphic designer duo Førtifem. Paying tribute to Japanese illustrators like Takato Yamamoto, the visuals portray contrasting elements like nature/urbanity, youth/death, femininity/animality and combine poetic elements with darker ones that were not present in Alcest's earlier works.
By giving the album a cultural, stylistic and compositional narrative, Neige and Winterhalter keep "Kodama" from just being the latest improvement on the Alcest sound and instead make the album a most rare and exciting thing: a vital, relevant record from a pioneer that not only upholds the band's trailblazing legacy but actually makes you want to see where they go next.
As with many other progressive rock bands, Edensong’s take on the genre is one that is hard to pin down. They appear to have something of a passionate interest in progressive folk rock of the kind that Jethro Tull made a career out of, and traces and echoes of that band can be found on numerous occasions throughout. Not merely due to the liberal use of flute soloing, but also in certain structural elements unless I’m much mistaken. That there are passages that comes across as something of a bastard child of Jethro Tull and Dream Theater is perhaps and indication of just how extensive the palette Edensong use is, although the more clear cut metal-oriented themes and passages strictly speaking is a minority feature on this CD. Very much present, but not in a dominant manner.Read the full review by Olav Martin Bjørnsen at houseofprog.com
