Mastodon - Crack The Skye

With the follow up of Blood Mountain, their fourth album, it seems that Mastodon have a lot of tricks up their sleeve. Their new album released last year, Crack The Skye, is a magical metallic rollercoaster ride. Although it has seven tracks including a 10 and 12-minute epics that is almost as Prog as far as the eye can see, they show no sign of stopping. It sounds like a metallic representative versions of King Crimson meets The Mars Volta meets Frank Zappa’s Hot Rats-era. Thrash at one point, fierce and twisted, but it comes up with all of the ingredients it needs to come up with one amazing album from start to finish.

Now I have to admit something, this is my first time getting into Mastodon, and let me say I’m getting started to enjoy this band very much and they are carrying the Prog Metal torch into the night. I’ve listened to Crack The Skye twice now and this is an album that you need to buy. I was a little skeptical at first because I thought they were ripping off Dream Theater. I was dead wrong. Here, is an album that will blow your socks off and take Prog and Math Rock to another level like you’ve never heard before.

The album itself is a dynamic concept that allowed the band to use free rein, but go off like a bat out of hell in strange time changes like fireworks going off like crazy. The music is a combination of middle-eastern rock, heavy metal, psychedelic-prog, and driven steady beats that takes the listener by surprise of a band that is completely out of this world. Now mainstream is considered a dirty word, but for Progressive Rock, is no longer a dirty word anymore if you are getting a lengthy introduction to the music right now.

Opening track Oblivion is a frightening track that would fit tightly on Black Sabbath’s earlier albums like Master of Reality. It adds the doom metal disturbance to the mix and the chaotic insanity for Mastodon to move forward into the Prog Doom sound and moving away from the Sludge sound since forming in 1999. As I mentioned before there is a nod to the middle-eastern rock sound on Crack The Skye, with the Egyptian opening Robert Fripp-esque guitar introduction on Divinations as they get the gears guitar roaring, screaming vocals, and fast-sped time signatures that are similar to the Red-era of King Crimson and the Master of Puppets-era of Metallica that was left off during the sessions.

For all lovers of the Progressive Metal sound that is a running finish line throughout Crack The Skye, there are more twisted and insane tracks that will keep you going for more until the very end. The intensity kicks in on Quintessence as it is a blend of Math Metal and Psych-Prog that is almost could have been used in a rock operatic suite with the drums pounding like crazy and guitars just roaring like crazy to add the tension up a notch. Then we go right into the 10-minute epic centerpiece, The Czar.

Starting off with an eerie organ introduction that is in the style of The Beatles Blue Jay Way and then the guitars come in giving a haunting call while the bass follows the groove along with heavy duty vocalizations. Mind you, this is something that is out of this world to give you goose bumps all over your body. And the lyrics of paying the price and fighting to survive with: “Don't stay run away /He has ordered assassination /Don't stay run away /The henchmen are gathered and waiting /Don't stay run away Your role as usurper is found out /Don't stay run away /Tsarina has warned of the danger.” This number definitely could have been in the trailer for Dead Space 2 while Ghost of Karelia features some beautiful militant roars from guitar and bass are racing to the finish line and the singing itself gets you by the feet.

And then we come to the last two final tracks of the album. The title track has a hypnotic guitar driven sound along with a shattering vocalization and this reminded me a lot of Opeth’s Mikael Akerfeldt’s growling death metal voice and calmful as well as if it’s in the mind of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. And very ‘70s eclectic prog at times that would barely climb the mountain tops of time singatures. The 13-minute finale, The Last Baron doesn’t just simply end the album it is a perfect ending to close the curtain on Crack The Skye. It’s a calm-like relaxed number and breathtaking at the same time to be considered a live favorite for the Mastodon fans for the band to do.

Nothing can beat around the bush from this tour de force magnetic album as a Rock Opera. The songwriting and concept is a creative energy force with a lot of brainstorming, Crack The Skye is an overwhelming progressive metal album that is out of the ball park.

Supertramp - Breakfast In America

One of the most quintessential albums of all time, Breakfast in America was Supertramp’s biggest selling album of all time. Thanks to the hit singles: The Logical Song, Take the Long Way Home, Goodbye Stranger, and the title track. It gave Supertramp the top 10 hits and selling 6 million copies including the album as it skyrocketed to number one in the Billboard Charts in 1979. They became a favorite including Beatle Paul McCartney who admired the band during the album’s release. It gave Supertramp, the introduction of what’s called “Progressive Pop” as it opened the floodgates to the States.

The album is at the core of the Prog Pop genre. As Paul McCartney described them his “new favorite band,” is really a great opportunity to be appreciated by a Beatle. You could tell that he listened to their earlier albums: Incredibly Stamped, Crime of the Century, and Crisis? What Crisis? Unlike Pop bands like 10cc and the Alan Parsons Project, Supertramp had Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson who were the answer to John Lennon and Paul McCartney. They wrote some great material including Dreamer, Bloody Well Right, Give A Little Bit, and Ain’t Nobody But Me.

But the tension between the two started to grow during the making of the album. Originally, Rick Davies hated the title and wanted to use titles like: Working Title or Hello Stranger, but Roger won the verdict and the result is history. The cover was done by Mike Doug and used Kate Murtagh portraying as the Statue of Liberty holding a breakfast menu and holding a glass of orange juice as the city of the big apple is used with kitchen utensils, salt & pepper shakers, coffee cups, and two boxes shown in the style of the World Trade Center while the back cover shows the band members ordering breakfast, reading the newspaper as Kate pours a cup of coffee to one of the band members.

It was the first time that the album used a Wurlitzer Electric Piano, which is a 64-note instrument from an octave note of the major chord of C and forming a pickup system using an electrostatic system from a DC voltage to fit a mechanical sustain pedal. And it fitted well for Breakfast in America. The sound had been used on Crime and Crisis, but it was never used on any of Supertramp’s career and it made it the first album to be one of finest examples to use a Wurlitzer. It was released on March 29, 1979, where it charted for six weeks.

Breakfast in America became the biggest selling album since Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon in 1973. A work of unique geniuses, a usage of Beatlesque lyrics, pop ballads, and trying to make it to hit the big time in Hollywood, makes the album a highly mannered blockbuster smash and a great idea to have a sense of humor. From the opening soar of excitement on Gone Hollywood which deals with the creeps in the city of glamour and dealing with how despair and the destruction of L.A. can be a disgusting place to be as if the character wished he never set foot in the city. The Logical Song which has a strong connection the Prog-Pop power of the Beatles. Hodgson’s electric piano pop sound provides a strong groove alongside John Helliwell’s soulful sax solo while the song deals with the loss of innocence and condemning the education system. Rick’s composition of Goodbye Stranger sits in between the Pet Sounds-era Beach Boys sound and a twist of 10cc while parodying the Bee Gees.

The title track in which tells the story of the person’s introduction to the flavor of America and finding out if they have kippers in Texas as it priors to the up tempo beat and craves of the melodic statue of curiosity. Oh Darling is a perfect dance rocking ballad. Davies soulful voice on and the keyboard as well as Hodgson comes up with Lennon-like guitar sound as the two sing as if Lennon/McCartney are really pleased of what the two are doing despite the tension. Take The Long Way Home is a haunting mournful composition which features Davies disturbing Harmonica introduction as Hodgson brings the Prog Pop sound to another world with finding out how home is a long way to be with a surprising melody that became a top 10 hit single. The piano ballad filled with emotions shows Roger how good a singer he is with the heartfelt calmness of Lord Is It Mine while Just Another Nervous Wreck could have been written for the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road sessions.

Casual Conversations is very laidback in the style of the Aja-era of Steely Dan. It has a jazzy groove with the electric piano is very calm and almost is set in a smoky nightclub in the 1950s with its mellow atmosphere along with John’s sax solo to fill the nightclub scene as the next epic track closes the album very well like a storybook. Child of Vision, which is a feud-like song between Davies and Hodgson who are like brothers during this number. It deals with the creative differences they have between each other. The band almost are into attack mode as Rick plays this magnificent piano solo along with the keyboard duking it out while John closes the track with a short yet beautiful sax solo to finish album off well.

From that moment on, the relationship between Davies and Hodgson became strained after finishing the Breakfast in America tour as the battles became increased during the Famous Last Words sessions. Roger decided he had enough and departed the band in 1983 to raise his children and be a father and pursuing a solo career while Davies continued under the Supertramp banner and now are going to tour for their 40th anniversary and performing Hodgson’s songs which have pissed Roger off big time. But I won’t go into that direction.

Breakfast in America has put Progressive Pop into a crowning achievement through the mind of the two singers. It is one of Supertramp’s finest album of the decade 30 years later.

Opensight - The Voice of Nothing

Did I just catch another sound in the roaring sound of Progressive Metal? Coming from Colombia, Opensight is carrying the sounds of: Dream Theater, Tool, and the Blackwater Park-era of Opeth. But their debut album, The Voice of Nothing, is definitely worth checking out. This illustrates their fierce guitar work, progressive sounds in their footsteps, and almost could have been recorded in the ’80s while recording next door with Metallica as if they were Symphonic Metal.

So while they pay homage to their Prog Metal heroes, including the Prog-Psych sound as well, and the militant guitar sounds of Iron Maiden. And of course, the singer sounds like Maynard James Keenan, the sound is spot on. This album goes for the energetic level and comes up like a flying magnetic machine going for the kill.

From the ferocious opening of Only When, is a real volcanic track. In their Tool-like sound momentum, Opensight become aggressive with this number but with this dramatic number, it is very futuristic and post-apocalyptic, along with their homage to the Math Rock dosage. Probably one of the most time changed signature of the debut album, Former Heroes goes for the kill between a guitar duo and driven pounding drum section along with a moody new age guitar solo in the midsection. This is the real treat that could be for an opening number for a horror film.

While Opensight have the Prog flavor to the mix, they lead us into jazz-psych-metal territorial waters in Deleted Scene, a terrifying roller-coaster ride that is very much a reminiscent of Symph Psych Metal sound of Ayreon. After the shattering three tracks that would have Oversight open for Within Temptation and give the audience a jaw dropping performance, Opensight go 500 miles per hour again with the fast-sped turned ‘70s rock sound of eclectic prog with Absolute Truth while the closing track, Skeptic’s Creed could have been a sequel to Madder Mortem’s Where Dream and Day Collide as the inject more of the Prog Metal sound and gives a prime kick-ass debut that is out of this world.

If Within Temptation held a secret conference room in Colombia, Opensight would open for them to welcome them with a huge amount of respect. The point is that this album is a mind-boggling debut for any Progressive Metal fan to put in their Prog collection. The evidence is here in the flesh.

Semiramis - Dedicato A Frazz

When you have a minor band from the Italian Rock scene, with only one album to come in handy, you might want to consider this lost gem. Semiramis recorded this album at a very young age, Leader, Vocalist, and guitarist, Michele Zarillo, who was 16 years old when he made this album, and the other band members were a different age from Michele. When you listen to Dedicato A Frazz, originally released in 1973, there is not a single bad track on this album from start to finish. The band was an opening band in Villa Pamphilli at the Open Air Festival for another Italian Prog band, Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso, they soon took notice and got a record contract from the Italian label, Trident Records.

The Album is very weird, classical, and very representative of Frank Zappa meets Gentle Giant in an Italian way. Most of the time, the band do a lot of weird time signatures , but that doesn’t stop the band creating a wonderful magnetic album. It’s like it was recorded for an epic TV series, for mature audiences, yet breathtaking. For starters who are getting into this album, you really have to fasten your seat belts, because the roller coaster ride has just begun for you.

At 36 minutes, it’s almost like a mad scientist working on his material, but a magnificent one. Beginning with La Bottega Del Rigattiere, it has a carousel rock sound and is very driven to be a prog classic as you are expecting to hear with its guitar driven nature, the keyboard sounding like an accordion, and heavy drum work as well while the complex structures of Luna Park manages to keep you on the edge of your seat with its baroque classical heavy metal sound to add the structures of Italian dance music that is giving the Tango the middle finger. Amazingly, it’s followed by one of the most twisted tracks that makes it a perfect vibe for Halloween. Un Zoo Di Vetro, which features a haunting keyboard section and disturbing King Crimson-like guitar sound to stir up the drama and tension of a view of the post-apocalyptic world of hell that goes up like a volcanic eruption that remains in the world of Avant-Garde Rock.

The track is very frightening that makes it perfect for the usage to scare the shit out of frat boys in a Horror flick alongside with Per Una Strada Affollata, a pastoral flourished tempo as Michele’s brother Maurizio goes for an homage to Keith Emerson rather than Rick Wakeman while guitarist Giampiero Artegiani does a majestic renaissance classical guitar sound to soothe the calmness for Maurizio as he takes a break and then BAM! The band comes back in for another free-for-all as an homage to the Vaudeville scene of the ‘20s that is militant and in your face prog attitude. As if to say ‘Let’s go out with a bang!’ to give the listener goose bumps, Dietro Una Porta Di Carta, takes the Zarrillo brothers and the band into an ambient dreamland moodiness, with wild moog sounds, heavy bass lines, Gilmour-esque Guitar licks, and calm-like drum sounds before going apeshit for the last two minutes of the number that represents the Pawn Hearts-era of Van Der Graaf Generator.

Frazz is back to the fast-sped time changes and this is probably one of the band’s amazing yet breathtaking tracks on Dedicato A Frazz. It sounds like a pre-Ottmar Liebert number that has been recorded on the studio boat and he’s teamed up with the Peter Gabriel-era of Genesis and Emerson, Lake and Palmer and would be a cult hit among the underground scene for a sheer dramatic sonic sound and get you to ready to be into a strict assembly. While they are going crazy and mad for more insane music, the closing Clown takes Zarrillo with it’s Gentle Giant predecessor with a sinister video game rock sound that could have been the score for Castlevania if it was released in the early ‘70s and bone-chilling shrieking keyboard and guitar driven magnitude bringing the drums and Marcello Reddavide bass to a run to the finish to a calm after the storm done by Giampiero’s acoustic finale.

Dedicato A Frazz to the process, is a wild and crazy album that knows their chops in the Progressive Rock scene and takes the explosives in a Pastoral and Dangerous adventure. Whether you love or hate the music genre, this is a must have for Italian Prog lovers to ascend. You might want to turn it up a notch

Pictures of The Ugly Beats performance at Cactus Records Friday Night

Hey everybody! Sorry for the delay. I just got back from Cactus Records last night to check out one of the most surprising bands that is bringing the Garage Rock revival back to the core. They are called The Ugly Beats and to me they are one of the most amazing Psychedelic/Garage Punk bands to come out of Austin, TX. I have some pictures I took from the gig and here they are above. I hope Little Steven will get a real kick out of them.

Man - Do You Like It Here Now, Are You Settling In?

This was the album that put Man on the map. They are Welsh’s answer to the Grateful Dead while they found their sound and appreciation. The follow up to their third album, Man in 1970, finds the group getting a cognitive condition that was well-informed and perceptive. While they are one of the most underrated cult bands to come out of Wales, Do You Like It Here Now Are You Settling In? Released in 1971 is a perfect combination of bringing: Pub Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Country and Blues sound to the mix throughout the six tracks that you’ll hear from start to finish.

Starting the album off is the country rocker Angel Easy, a raunchy down home upbeat groove that the listener would enjoy dancing to rather than The Eagles Lyin’ Eyes. The chugging rhythm section along with the late Micky Jones bluesy riffs that he brings to the band as Deke Leonard does his Bob Weir vocalization on the track. You can tell that they are a team working together creating magic as it segues into the quirky progressive/psychedelic cartoon homage to the Robert Clampett-era of All Good Clean Fun which sounds perfect blasting from the stereo and synchronizing to an old Bugs Bunny cartoon from the ‘40s.

The instruments are having a quirky sense of humor including a wah-wah guitar sound that is a bouncy lift and the time changes is a home run, but what follows next is more of the psych sound that takes a jump from their first two albums. We’re Only Children, is very much a swirling 8-minute composition that goes right into the moody 12-bar psych waltz and Hendrix-esque sound. It takes us to a new dimension in the ambient prog atmosphere that realms of the first two minutes into a soaring instrumental and then turned into an early session of Yes’ Time and a Word-era for the last 4-minutes as Micky goes into a warp speed sound on the guitar solo.

The guitar sounds very emotional and sometimes heavy at first as he goes leads like if he’s leading the listener to the world of dreams and then it becomes a militant folk chugging sound that closes the album. How good can Man really be? Then it becomes very well organized on the fan and live favorite from their set, Many Are Called, But Few Get Up. They bring the Dead sound on the number which even though the prog compositions are thrown in very well, it makes the listener’s fly through the sky and jam with the group for a groovy session.

As you are reaching to throttle through the cosmos of space acoustic pub blues of Manillo, includes an eerie lyrical background while the guitar is going through a leslie speaker that makes it sound very dark and very disturbing as the piano and shattering electric guitar go through a dramatic role as they take turns to solo and making it sound like Pink Floyd’s Fat Old Sun. Do You Like It Here concludes with the 9-minute Love Your Life, a twisted prog rock avant-garde African tribe sound at first with the backward tapes going faster and then turned into a wild experiment by turning it into jam session of John McLaughlin meets Jerry Garcia as they duke it out in the ring to have a crazy freak-out guitar jam session in the mind of Jones and Leonard.

Listening to this album, Do You Like It Here, Are You Settling In is a twisted yet magnificent album that always wanted to take a mind-control tripped out journey that will take you to a wonderous adventure. This is one hell of an album that you need to buy if you are interesting hearing Man’s music. The bonus tracks feature three live versions of Many Are Called But Few Get Up, Angel Easy, and the dazzling live version homage to a country bluesy rock metal sound of Led Zeppelin for 18-minutes of Romain. Esoteric Recordings deserve a lot of credit to go through Man’s catalogue and they did one hell of a job reissuing the album from all of it’s glory for the Man freaks to listen to.

The 16 Deadly Improvs - The Triumph of the 16 Deadly Improvs

With the kind of Arranging and Composition’s that we should take one of the new Progressive Rock bands to come out of New Jersey, The 16 Deadly Improvs are one of the most exquisite bands to come out of the states. Whether you love it or not, it’s extremely an understatement to take note that The Triumph of the 16 Deadly Improvs is not just one of their breathtaking albums of this year, but that everyone in the Prog scene should really take notice of, as one of the new bands to come out of the woodwork of the band’s talent, part fusion, and alternative rock like you’ve never heard it before. This is a beautiful, terrifying, and an unbelievable album as it is a masterpiece.

From instruments turning into a robotic sci-fi opener that recalls the King Crimson Red-era, Sand Palm IV is a great way to introduce the band’s eruption like a volcano that’s about to explode. Guitars and Drums going off like crazy and the keyboards flourishing synth wah-wah crescendo territory, it’s all part of the strength and a celebration that has never been done before. Spirit or Matter: an eerie number that builds the post rock sound off the wall in a mysterious layered rhythm section, ghost-like vocals in the mind of John Wetton, and the guitar solo is as strange than you’ll never know, but brilliant. Pounding drum section and a magnetic bass line by the Vapor Trails-era of Rush meets the Thrak-era of King Crimson of Torpedo in a real upbeat instrumental.

The guitar sounds very much like the Frippertronics and the Alex Lifeson sound as if they had a love child together that hits like a ton of bricks with the Moog itself letting the instruments create a moody and dark atmospheric sound to the composition. For those who are into an experimental blues improvisation, the 3-minute guitar solo and rhythm guitar work on Bugbear Blues is the Improv’s chance to rip with some fierce work and get down to business and not to play and behave like rock stars showing their tongue to see who’s god or not. Invincible Pole Fighters is another terrifying magnum opus that could have been recorded during the Moving Pictures sessions which features excerpts from the documentary, Shall We Protest as if the band had recorded the soundtrack to the movie with a high voltage sound that is one of their best works ever.

On Into Another Time, the vocals have a split personality double tracked style with more guitar synths, bringing into mind of Radiohead meets Pierre Henry, it’s very schizophrenic , but it soon transforms into a middle-eastern avant-garde reverb rein and then it’s the bass and the keyboards setting this ambient new age sound with plot twists and send the listener into a frenzy with a disturbing ending. Rise of the Septopi is a vehicle for the disturbing rumbling guitar work. It’s has an Ash Ra Tempel Egyptian Rock sound, but it’s a fucking tour de force!

Even though it sounds like a Japanese Horror Film and Godzilla’s love child, Gargantua is a fusionesque rocker with the guitar become a funk turned a shrieking psychedelic scream while the bass line is very down to earth and the drums flow the section to give it a disturbing session from Mogwai’s The Hawk is Howling, but it’s a proper structure for dynamic proportions. Sand Palm V is back to the crescendo’s as the Synth’s go haywire while the drums and guitar go apeshit as if they are paying tribute to Zappa and Krautrocker’s Amon Duul II.

The jarring charged electrifying Dear Me gives you some faster time changes to get your blood pumping into sci-fi effects that makes it disturbing yet oddly normal. All of the twist and turns makes the quirky jazz fusion sound of the ‘70s, You’d Make a Lot of Money, makes it very much a catchy instrumental dance beat with a lot of the wah-wah guitar going into interstellar overdrive while the middle finger number against house music of Death To Disco collides with the Mars Volta sound chugging bass riffs and shrieking guitar work along with the synth and cowbell adding the tension to the production techniques.

Then everything gets back to normal. Mag 3 is a representation of Porcupine Tree’s early days layered and Steven Wilson’s production material as if he wrote a disturbing film score for one of Dario Argento’s Profondo Rosso with the child-like sound on the keyboards, drums sounding like a train chugging, and bass and guitar taking turns for a twisted ride into the twisted world of hell, as The Burrowers Beneath builds on atmospheric rhythm, synths raging in the mind of Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream’s early days float along the ambient nightmarish chorus along with the Harmonia meets Manuel Gottsching sound of middle-eastern references. It’s these moments that make Fading of my Memories a calm after the storm.

It feels like someone is mourning a loss one and playing the music at the gravesite, the next you want to dance because he/she feels that there shouldn’t be anyone mourning, but a celebration of the dreams and remembrances you have. The closing Sand Palm VI is soaked into the climatic climax as if they are paying homage to Metallica that it’s impossible to describe and fill the rumbling roar into the open road. The Triumph of the 16 Deadly Improvs is an explosive album with Prog, Metal, Post Rock and forward to bring the Avant-Garde Rock sound into a magnetic dreamland sound.

No Bullshit here, believe me, The 16 Deadly Improvs are the next King Crimson.