BEWARE OF THE GOD

To be honest, I was rather daunted when I first saw the amount of tracks held on Sébastien Gramond's 'Beware Of The God'. After a three hour plus romp with one of Gramond's earlier albums 'Virtual Fantasy', I was quite aware that it was not beyond Gramond to craft incredbiyl long and drawn out pieces of work, dragging out certain ideas just for the sake of making the compositions 'long'. While 'Virtual Fantasy' was a surprisingly enjoyable album to listen to, I wasn't quite prepared to dive into another album of that length, at least until a few more post- trauma therapy sessions are booked. 'Beware Of The God' is not nearly as long as 'Virtual Fantasy', but it does follow the same formula, and it is still quite long by most standards. For someone looking for a drawn out instrumental album, this can be quite an enjoyable experience.

The first piece here is 'The Evil Pilgrimage', which is essentially a psychedelic jam, mixing some jazzy elements in. It sounds greatly improvised, and while things are played quite admirably, it can tend to wear thin by the time the massive piece is over. Next is 'Surrounded By Spiritual Forces', which is much more successful at filling up its length with interesting ideas. Paramount among the cool things happening for this particular epic are the remarkable acoustic guitar passages of Gramond, which are very beautiful and show that he really can write some good music. Unfortunately, this track also succumbs to a improvised rock jam. 'Mother Nature Strikes Off' is the third suite here, and it is defined by a heavy use of pianos. It is also the jazziest offering here, and while highly improvised as well by all appearances, it is quite a bit more interesting and energetic than the previously heard improvisations. And lastly is 'After All, I Am', which seems to take the aspects of the three previous suites and combine them together. While you might expect a 'super-suite' out of that, it does just tend to equate to the same wandering jam music as before.

For jam music, Sébastien Gramond does 'Beware Of The God' quite well, but it should be warned that someone listening to the entire thing from start to finish might find themselves a little bored by the end.