Tracklist:
- Reform
- Tempest
- Glaciers
- City of Decay
- Concinnity
- In the Wake of
- Stolen
- Ascension
- Sketches
- Halcyon
- A Mindful Wave
- Tides
And now for something completely different. If, like me, you’ve restricted your field of
vision to bands graced by the power of speech, it might be time to broaden your
horizons. So, what better way to do it
than with a bit of Aussie instrumental power/prog/symphonic/djent metal? Bend the Sky are a fresh young flame burning
away down under, and Origins is their full-length debut.
The album is played out across
booming guitars and bass, splashing drums, and fair whack of synthesised
keyboards. And, bereft of words, its
creators leave themselves with all the space they need to give full expression
to a masterful array of instrumental talent.
For the greater part, it’s a stormy experience. Take track 2, the aptly named Tempest, in
which battering rhythms slam into one another, each one challenging the next
for supremacy; and again, in the turbulent introduction and ending of track 8,
Ascension.
It’s a bold approach to music
which is no less evident in the construction of musical textures. These consist of intertwining
instrumentation, allowing the band to build up the intensity of their work with
a concerted but mindful ease. It’s a
feature of the music established as early as the opening minutes of the first
track, Reform, which layers mellow guitars onto broken keyboard runs,
thereafter introducing drums and base.
The same approach crops up two tracks later, as guitar plucking and
intricate keyboard keys weave above bass strokes and cymbal splashes.
A continual collision of
uncompromising sounds and rhythms is a potential invitation for disaster, but
one, thankfully, well handled. Rarely does
this turbulence threaten to break loose into the uncontrolled rage of passion
it nevertheless threatens; the orchestration is invariably – and superbly –
controlled throughout, tight and disciplined; and on those occasions where it
does begin to rattle loose (a particularly brash bit of guitar riffing at the
beginning of track 3, Glaciers, comes to mind), the band’s ability to resolve
the impending chaos into smoother patterns, allowing powerful melodies to soar
above the bassy chugs of guitars and drums, is admirable.
Throughout the album, the
complexities of the music and of the vision of its composers is played off in a
constant – and largely unresolved – tension between aggression and
reflection. Neither element is far
away, and one is always liable to lapse into the other at any point. Intermittently, the calm and reflective
prevails, through a combination of delicate melodic patterns and subdued
drum-beats. The subtleties of this
approach soften a powerful anger which provides most of the album’s backdrop,
shining through most clearly in track 6, In the Wake of, in a warm, radiant
glow. And yet, even here, the
impressive strength of the storm cannot be withheld completely, bursting in on
the scene with a crash and a crunch.
In spite of this, the record
never seems to shake off a somewhat opaque character: very basically, without
words to give hints of deeper meanings, we’re often left guessing. Track titles give some suggestions of
conceptual themes, perhaps a combination of human limitations and aspirations –
waste and regression, on the one hand, a degree of intelligence and reflection,
on the other – amid the imperial majesty of a vengeful universe and nature
(although the grandiose Ascension could also suggest religion as a going
concern).
Whether or not the album is held
together by a clear and consistent conceptual framework, however, there’s also
no obvious sense progression from start to finish. Without an intro (meaningless, perhaps, to a record in any case
written without lyrics), the start is not clearly defined from the finish; the
final songs, on the other hand, could, in places, be construed as finales, but
often little more so than their predecessors.
It’s not particularly helped by the fact that every song follows the
same basic structure: a short introductory phase, usually played out in quieter
tones, ushering in heavier and more powerful themes, before the music begins to
modulate between these and softer elements.
Nonetheless, with its powerful
and subtle musical themes, Origins’ strengths are undeniable, comfortably
drowning out any possible complaints: majestic instrumental performances and
self-assured orchestration combine to produce music laden with emotive contrast
and simultaneously smartly geared up with a mature discipline. There’s amid anger and force, there’s
determination, both powerful and quietly concerted, and soft reflection. The fact that it’s a full-length debut, if
it ever mattered at all, counts for nothing in the end: by any standard, Bend
the Sky have cooked up a crackerjack.
Production: 4/5
Originality: 4/5
Album Cohesion: 3/5
Music: 8/10
http://bendthesky.bandcamp.com/
http://www.facebook.com/bendthesky?ref=ts&fref=ts
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