Crimson Blue - The Angelic Performance

With a dosage of Gothic Metal and ‘70s Art/Progressive Rock thrown into the inspiration, along with a keytar and a soprano female vocalist, you can quite see some very special is about to happen from a quintet that will give you a dosage of the sounds of the two genres getting to erupt like a volcano that is ready to come burst. And that is Moscow’s own Crimson Blue. The band launched back in 2008 with darker areas and performed in different clubs and having a demo released in 2010, a debut album in 2011 called Innocence, and their new album released this year called, The Angelic Performance.

Combining the sounds of Lacuna Coil, Pain of Salvation, and Opeth to name a few, Crimson Blue are just one of the most surprising bands I’ve ever listened to and they can really take it up a notch here. With some line-up changes, the band considers; Dani Hellstrom on Lead Vocals and Keyboards, Andrew Nova on Guitar, Lex Romano on Guitar, Alex Verge on Bass, and Billy Nekhaev on Drums. The band are now on a European tour with Nightwish’s Tarja Turunen which they started on Halloween and throughout November this year and supporting the new album and finally getting some recognition to breakout into high gear.

Songs like Locust starts the album off with radio tuning, thunderstorm, and alarms blaring before the up tempo bass rumbling, eruptive riffs, drums, and Dani’s vocals come kicking in with her vocals and then it becomes a middle-eastern touch that makes you feel that you are in a lost world without going home, but this track is an excellent and powerful introduction to get the engines rolling. They also bring in some of the atmosphere of the future and dealing with the struggling to survive is a risk for a choice to sacrificing themselves.

Take for example Dolores. It sounds like a revolutionary metallic touch, but they get into the alternative rock direction with the bass lines by Verge, haunting ominous guitar leads from both Nova and Romano, and Nekhaev’s drums getting into the mid-tempo beats as Dani’s voice just soars through to give the band an electrical juice to pump them up to see where they would go to next while Sacrifiction has a darker, melodic, and ominous approach that shows Dani’s voice resembling at times Sharon Den Adel of Within Temptation as she soars throughout his vocals to reach that high note.

Dani’s voice gives the band a chance to relax and calm down for a good while as she sings with a beautiful tone and the orchestral vibes sets an emotional tone with her and playing the piano and creating epic touches as if you can imagine trying to not being alone with the Road to Oblivion. And it gives Crimson Blue a chance to show their softer side along with flying to the heavens on Dark Heart of Mine. But they also have a side of doing two epics on here with the 9-minute piece, Lab ll Yggdrasil and the 11-minute closer, Black Wings.

Here, the band go into some textures of heavier and ascending melodies with extreme power thanks to Romano, Nova, Verge, and Nekhaev creating those structures to see where the time is right on the signature sounds for the powder keg to go off with a frightening beat. And go into the melodramatic sounds through the ominous piano as if you are walking into a dark and haunting forest looking and searching for help before the roaring instruments come in like a driven engine running and then the usage of the keyboard strings and Dani singing the melody and then back into the darker tunnel while go into the chance for light at the end of the tunnel as she is helping the person for comfort and let them know that everything is going to be okay with a climatic finale.

While this is my introduction to the band’s music, Crimson Blue’s The Angelic Performance is a touching and an evocative album this year. And they really have a lot of energy inside their hearts and minds of playing the sounds of the influences in their music. And it’s rolled into one. And yet, it is an album that a band have really shown a lot of vitality and details of what they have accomplished in them.

In Tormentata Quiete - Cromagia

Given the sounds of Black Metal with a dosage between Folk-Prog Rock and Avant-Garde atmosphere, it’s quite an interesting take of creating those three genres and making it combined into one. And one of the bands that have been around called In Tormentata Quiete. Formed in 1998, the band’s concept is to create a score of the spiritual journey of how a Man has to deal with their own emotions and they have released three albums so far on the concept and now released this year from My Kingdom Music is Cromagia.

It’s an album that goes through the passion of humanity and creates the dynamics of the storyline in different vibes with exquisite themes and intense yet insane structures on what they would come up with next. Beginning with an ambient guitar-like alarming introduction that has elements of Tangerine Dream’s score to Sorcerer on the opener, Blu, it makes you go inside the human mind of the man’s idea and see what he would do next as it segues into il Profumo del Blu.

There are some of the beauty and the beast vocals in there with the shrieking thrown in and took me by surprise with the electronic vibes thrown in there along with at times operatic vocals between Simone Lanzoni and Marco Vitale as Irene Petitto handles the middle-eastern vocalizations as the instruments come right in knocking the door down. It goes through a melodic touch for the first 2 minutes and 55 seconds as the violin done by Elena Mirandola and the rhythm and lead guitars along with the growling/insanity vocals, makes you realize that someone is going is trying to break loose in the mental institution before getting into the folk-like sound and into the uplifting touches as Irene comes in and the band goes back into the intense section from the instruments.

Rosso starts off with a droning Indian sitar introduction with some amazing improvisation through a soft turned swift beauty done by Leo Vertunni, as it tells the tale of the passion of living while il Sapore del Rosso goes back into the moving melody and then back into the darker elements. Not to mention the piano, vocals, and guitar solo coming in done by Lorenzo Rinaldi and Maurizo D’Apote on the bass creating the vibes growing and Paparella’s drumming goes into sooth and fast-driven at times, giving it all the power they got to kick it in.

Lorenzo Rinaldi really shines through his guitar playing as he puts his electric down for a while and goes into the classical side acoustically with two beautiful gems with Verde featuring Lanzoni’s vocals and the homage to Ottmar Liebert at times with for the first two minutes and into the metallic side in the styles of early Metallica on Giallo. On Nero, it goes into an ominous yet atmospheric surrounding with quiet growling and whispering insanity vocals with the keyboards setting the tone on the conflict on the inner self as the two tracks, La Carezza del Giallo and La Visione del Nero gets back into the nightmarish sounds for the person to conflict the demons inside them.

The closing track, InVento, is a soaring orchestral piece. The band gives Irene a chance to shine through her calming vocals. It is an emotional yet touching composition and Irene does an incredible job while the band gives it a ray of light to find hope as the encouraging harmonies, gratifies the warmth and fulfilling beats. In Tormentata Quiete’s Cromagia is not an easy album to listen to, but it is a powerful, dark, folk, classical, and extreme album combined into one and they have brought the concept for the listener knowing that it might hit home for them and finding out who they are and have a second chance in life to start a new chapter for them.

Gentle Giant - Octopus

Gentle Giant really got the ball rolling with the release of their fourth album, Octopus, released in 1972 on the Vertigo label in the UK and on Columbia Records in the States and reissued in 2011 from the Alucard label, this was where the time of the group to go into a harder approach, but staying true to the difficult time signatures to follow as well in their music from their first three albums. But it was also the last album to feature older brother Phil Shulman as he grew tired of being on the road and missing his family and tension between Derek and Ray, was growing and then after the tour was completed, he would soon leave and the band would later be a quintet throughout the rest of their career.

But with the arrival of drummer John Weathers, who was a part of bands/artists like Eyes of Blue (Bluebell Wood), Pete Brown & Piblokto, and the late great yet overlooked keyboardist, Graham Bond, everything started to come into place right here. The opening track, The Advent of Panurge is a perfect way to kick the album off with a bang as Kerry’s keyboards and Gary’s guitar along with John’s drumming sets the tempo as they set the different time changes going before Derek’s voice comes right in and it’s a powerful improvisation between the character and his friend, Pantagruel.

Then the band switch the harder edge sound into a Medieval-Renaissance vibe and a little nod to Elgar’s classical compositions in the piece, makes it an astounding touch for them to pay tribute to the composer while A Cry for Everyone, goes back into the hard rock sounds comes right back in with the story about Albert Camus, who was a philosopher, wrote an essay called The Rebel in 1951 in which it dealt with the opposing view of nihilism. Elsewhere, the musical jigsaw of acapella vocals combined with chamber rock at times with the avant-garde twist is surreal, but mind-boggling touch for them to have a blast on their tribute to psychiatrist R.D. Laing’s view of psychosis on Knots.

The Boys in the Band begins with engineer Martin Rushent's laughter and the coin spinning to the floor before the intensity improvisation comes kicking in like a cannonball going off as the complex movement goes in as Kerry Minnear shines through his keyboards and Phil Shulman’s horns, Gary Green’s Guitar, Ray’s Bass, and Weather’s drumming fill in to have the touch of Jazz Fusion. Minnear is going through in the midsection in the styles of Herbie Hancock and David Sancious for a couple of seconds before closing into the climax ending.

Gentle Giant show their softer side with the ballad on the moody composition on the love that the people have is gone, but their memories is sorrow and showing no sign of tomorrow with an emotional vibe and Minnear just sings so beautifully with the soothing Think of Me with Kindness. They also go back into the Medieval side as well as a tribute to their roadies who have been on the road with the band with an acoustic folk touch as Phil takes on the vocals that he is singing and its almost like an homage to Gryphon on Dog’s Life.

The closer, River, is the band creating different boundaries mixing with Ray’s Electric Violin and Gary Green’s Guitar playing the melody in the moments the band would stop and go. And adding the electronic noises of the spooky vibe with Ray and Derek sharing vocals in that midsection, and the thunderous Weathers just nailing on the solo on the drums and Green’s bluesy solo, it goes to show how much they can take it as a whole to close it off with elements of the Jazz sound.

The bonus track and the 6-page booklet, which is on their 2011 reissue from the Alucard label, is their live performance of Excerpts of songs from Octopus they performed at the Calderone Theater on July 3^rd, 1976 in Hempstead, New York in which they were promoting their eight album, Interview. Listening to the live performance during the Bicentennial celebration, you could imagine and feel that you are at the concert being blown away of the band and just rooting and cheering for them to imagine what they would do next unexpected time movements and get the audience’s stamp of approval.

The booklet features pictures of the band and talking about making the album and promo material at the time it was being released. Fans consider it at their peak and one of their finest albums to date. It is an integrated yet a mind-blowing album from start to finish for any fan of the Prog genre to really sink into their works. And if anyone who is a starter of Gentle Giant's music, this is a highly recommendation to get you started because it has everything inside the album; Chamber, Classical, Jazz, Folk, Hard Rock, and the Blues rolled into one.

Performart - The Art of Falling In and Out the Circle of Time

When you have complete creative freedom from a group or an artist, it allows you to do whatever you want and make their own music the way they wanted to be done and have some of their friends to lend a helping hand and not allow the business to come after you. It’s hard for some of them in the music business to have carte blanche in them and make their own material. For one of the bands, is a duo that is out of Italy by the name of Performart.

Formed in 2008, the duo considers Guitarist/effects Andrea Guariso and on double bass/effects Claudio Nicola. It’s hard to understand where to put Performart in the category of; Prog, Folk, Experimental, Jazz, or Avant-Garde, but it’s free improvisation that is on their debut album released this year called, The Art of Falling In and Out the Circle of Time. They have their own ideas of what they can do of a no-new concept and creating the communication of language through their sound and vision and you have to take giant baby steps for the listener to take a step forward into the other door and see what ideas they have in their brainstorming ideas.

With 12 compositions they have written, and concoct of the music, Nicola and Guariso intense sounds have this surreal and chaotic effect that has some elements of electronics, dulcet tones, free jazz, backward tapes, neo-classical, and surrealism thrown in shows that they can take it up a notch of the concept of Performart’s vision. At times for Guariso and Nicola, they almost imagined as if they were doing a score for one of David Lynch’s earlier work or one of Luis Bunuel’s short films to really take it to a whole new level of intensity.

And there are some elements of Lol Coxhill, David Bedford, Philip Glass, and the Krautrock group, Faust. The elevation carries those ideas of the releases to approach insoluble movements and surprising ideas that Performart would have inside their magic hat to see what would come out next. From Guariso creating jazz and Oldfield meets Fripp-like sounds on his guitar and Nicola is slapping and going into different areas on his bass, the intensity just adds to see what they would do next in their electronic structures and imagining the duo working a lot of twisted magic on their improvisation.

However, after listening about five times of Performart’s music, The Art of Falling In and Out the Circle of Time is an imaginative and perceptive debut  they have released from the label, Electromantic Music and with help from the artistic direction and production from Arti E Mestieri’s Beppe Crovella who founded the label back in the ‘80s, he knows that have something interesting and mind-blowing in the sound and vision that they brought to the table and showing they can do whatever they want on their instruments. It’s not an easy album to listen to, but it’s a start to see what will happen next for them in the future.  

Armageddon - Armageddon

Armageddon is considered one of the most unsung gems from the lost and hidden treasures of the heavy and progressive rock bands to come out of the mid ‘70s and their sole self-titled debut album is an overlooked gem. These 5 tracks show how much they never reached the recognition they deserve and since their formation forty years ago, it shows how much they were way ahead of their time and would have given Led Zeppelin a huge run of their money if they had still continued to move forward, but splitting up after a sudden tragedy.

The band considered; Keith Relf (The Yardbirds/Renaissance) on Lead Vocals and Harmonica, Bobby Caldwell (Captain Beyond) on Drums, Martin Pugh (Steamhammer) on Guitar, and Louis Cennamo (Steamhammer/Renaissance) on Bass Guitar. The band was signed to A&M Records with help from supporter Peter Frampton, at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. The label did everything they could to promote and market the band whenever they can as the group was recording their debut in Barnes at Olympic Studios during the autumn of 1974.

Opening track, Buzzard, begins with a rumbling wah-wah buzzing guitar introduction that Martin Pugh does before Caldwell and Cennamo come in as Pugh is going into his improvisation on here as he and Caldwell just nail it through like a bullet train going 600 miles per hour before Keith’s voice comes in knowing that there is not a single stop sign for the quartet. And he is going through heavy solos and riffs as Caldwell is lending a helping hand throughout his drum kit and it goes through the styles of Zeppelin and Purple rolling in town.

And then Keith Relf’s wailing and crying harmonica echoes throughout and the Bluesy touches are fitting in perfectly before closing with a bang from guitar and drums. Silver Tightrope shows Relf going through a moving vocal arrangement as the echoing sounds of Martin Pugh, gives it a wonderful clean reverb sound that is very much in the realms of the Physical Graffiti-era for the first four minutes before the band comes in and let the piece relax and calm into the clouds before Pugh goes back into the improvising melodies as the background vocalizations help him out to end the piece.

After the moody and relaxing vibes of the second composition, Armageddon gets back to harder edges and back into town. Paths and Planes and Future Gains sounds like cannon going off thanks to Pugh, Caldwell, and Cennamo’s bass line before Keith sings “Silver Trumpets Call/Herald Shining Armour/Armour so bright/That the blind will fall.”  It has this war cry if you will as you can imagine the situation between good and evil are preparing for battle to fight and sacrifice for their lives as guitar, drums, and Relf go into this chugging rhythm and it’s almost a head banging feel throughout the last 2-minutes.

Last Stand Before sees Armageddon laying down some proto-metal grooves and shows their touches to Led Zeppelin once more and having the riffs and drums fitting in before a dueling battle between Keith Relf’s roaring harmonica and Martin Pugh’s rhythm and lead guitar sound makes it a perfect competition to see who would win in the race and they are all winners on this. After four compositions, it is time for the 11-minute epic, Basking in the White of the Midnight Sun.

This is where the band is in full tight swing on this last piece before going off for the sun to go down. With a riveting introduction as if the ship is ready for take-off, the band get cooking as Pugh gets the beat down to a pulsing riff and intense turned psychedelic rhythm along with Caldwell’s drumming that is very uptempo beat, makes it a joyous adventure into outer space. Along with Keith improvisation on the harmonica adds the reverb and delay effect to make it as if it’s a roaring beat along with Caldwell’s homage to Ginger Baker and Pugh’s growling rhythm chords that are monstrous and having a crescendo and then the interstellar driving force is heading back to earth for a climatic ending.

It is their magnum opus with a hard rock and reminiscent of Nektar’s music that deserves to be played loud and get the dancing kicks in there and almost as if it could have been a live favorite among the audience to enjoy and embrace the piece. The band never got any help from their label and with only limited backing and only two performances, Armageddon called it a day. Keith Relf was having asthma problems and was planning to joined up original line-up members of Renaissance called, Illusion.

But it was never going to happen for him. Sadly, Keith Relf died after being electrocuted while playing guitar in 1976. He was only 33 years old. It’s a shame when a band releases only one or two albums and never got the respect they needed from their record labels due to poor marketing and receiving some good reviews and Armageddon never got that chance. The people from Esoteric Recordings have done an amazing job reissuing this album back in 2009 with liner notes about the history of the group and lyrics from the album. So if you love Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep, and Led Zeppelin to name a few, then Armageddon is worth checking out. 

Quiet Observer - The Smell of Time

It has this interesting and sublime combination of different genres of music. From Metal, Electronic, Prog, Ambient World Music, to Jazz. And its almost as if they have been put into a blender and creating a futuristic sonic surrounding sound like almost as if it is something straight into the 22^nd century as if its ready to bring the genres into the machine and bringing a sound and taste for the people in the new planet to enjoy the music to by getting into the vibes and the visions of the sound. And one of the most experiencing touches that do the sounds of these connections is Ukraine’s own Quiet Observer.

Quiet Observer have released five albums back from 2012 with five albums in their hands from the mind of Zolar Czack who has been playing and composing music since 2009 and there is not a stop sign for him. The new album released this year, The Smell of Time is nine compositions by Zolar as he plays all the instruments throughout the entire album and he is virtuosity when it comes to creating music for the future on this one.

Using keyboards, xylophones, drums, flute, guitar, and bass, the instrumental pieces establish the sounds of space with different time signatures and moods that make the journey worth an exciting ride.  You can always imagine this being used as a score one of National Geographic specials or one of the IMAX films for the Science Museums and then, going on a ride into the horizons of the Grand Canyon, walking into dark cavernous caves and feel the cool water dripping on the rocks, or swimming to meet the dolphins at times and he is going into areas that are calming, energetic, taking flight, and at times relaxing to set you in the mood for the pieces on here.

Giving the concept of going through different spaces of time, Zolar shows a lot of his energy given on here and is making it into directions of places that you haven’t seen in your whole life when you listen to the entire pieces from beginning to end. Yet, The Smell of Time is one of the most thrilling yet experience albums I’ve listened to about seven times now. And Zolar Czack has really shown a lot of potential here for what you are about to experience as you take on the ride and music of Quiet Observer.

Voice of the Enslaved - Voice of the Enslaved

Blake Carpenter is a very busy man when it comes to projects including; Corvus Stone and of course his band, The Minstrel’s Ghost. Blake also now has a side project that is called, Voice of the Enslaved. The story of the album is about how this amazing paradise that was, is now corrupted filled with everything that they promised the citizens that can live their dreams, is just one big hoop of lies that the government and the corporation is a controlling brainwash and how they must survive to get out of the mess that they are in. You can imagine Blake almost as if he’s paying tribute to George Orwell and Ayn Rand of doing research behind the side project.

Alongside Blake who does the lead vocals, guitar, and keyboards, he brought help from Robert McClung (Telergy) on Guitar, Violin, and Sitar, Petri “Lemmy” Lindstrom (Corvus Stone) on Bass, and Zoltan Csorsz Jr (The Flower Kings, The Tangent, and Karmakanic) on Drums. Alongside who do the breaking news for the opening of the first piece are special guests including; Blake’s wife Terri, Troy James Martin, Elizabeth Martin, and Marty Dorfman (The Prog Doctor who does his own radio show on House of Prog called, The Waiting Room on Friday nights).

Like a film inside your head, Blake really brings a lot of ideas to the table and it is almost like lending a helping hand for a friend to see where they want to take the side project into. And not to mention on how the people they must struggle to survive of the government corruption. There are touches of a heavy symphonic middle-eastern ominous atmosphere (Apocalypse Now), energetic guitar riffs and solos (Watching You, Police State, and Idiot Box), and swirling advanced keyboard works along with a dosage of ascending melodies to fight for freedom (Revolution and Rich Man’s Dream).

Blake has really done his homework very well to show that what is in the storyline, that is really strong and powerful on what has been done wrong and the struggle to fight can be complex and difficult to survive by escaping from the brainwashing policies. There are reminiscent of bands like; Touchstone and the early Styx thrown in. And on Voice of the Enslaved, this isn’t just Blake, but his friends and his wife, bring a lot of his support by being a team and lending a helping hand on the project.

There are touches of Progressive Metal, Arena Rock, Electronic vibes, and of course, Middle-eastern music for the adventures on what is to come and what is about to happen next on each of the compositions that is on here. This is a wonderful concept storyline that Voice of the Enslaved is brought on here and Blake’s project is a knock-out.