KETTLESPIDER

Solid, polished, refreshing heavy prog rock from Down Under.

1. "The Climber" (2:24) the opening thirty seconds reminds me of some of the classic rock songs of the 70s--Damn Yankees or Loverboy or somebody like that--but then it switches at the forty-five second mark to something more complicated, more prog rock-like, more metal-like. (8.5/10)

2. "Circus" (4:34) the jazzy, delicate, melodic central third is the prize here. (9/10)

3. "Samsara" (2:31) opens with acoustic guitar being gently picked before keys and the rest of the band join in on the weave. They manage to maintain a nice melodic sense throughout this medium-paced instrumental. (9/10)

4. "Break The Safe, Pt. 1" (3:18) opens delicately but then becomes quite in your face in a kind of King Crimson way. Over and over they kind of "trick" you into relaxing and enjoying their beautiful sound groove before they bring in the distorted guitars and power chords. The final odd-time-signatured section is nice. (8.5/10)

5. "Anubis" (7:16) this one has quite a RUSH-like sound and feel to my ears (think of the excellent instrumental music of "Subdivisions"). The shift at the end of the second minute to a gentle and spacious section is quite unexpected and interesting. Steven Wilson comes to mind. Then comes the gun at 3:05 and they're off to the races, breaking into a heavy metal guitar-shredding section that tries to turn jazzy but then gets funneled back into the heavy prog world until 4:15 when another tricky, quirky, almost avant/RIO switcheroo tries to take hold. Just kidding! We're still heavy progging! But that trumpet is trying to say otherwise. Damn the influence of that Latin lover! I like this song because of its tricks and turns, surprises and maintained high quality and high entertainment value. Well done, arachnids! (9.5/10)

6. "Life" (6:06) Djent! Now they're getting into my comfort zone! (Don't know why I love those djenty guitar chords.) But then they turn sharp left in the second minute, trying to trick me again, but, no, it's just a short cut into some heavy prog, semi-djented. Nice work on the batterie, by the way, Simon. And props go out to precision bass work of Colin Andrews. Loving the fourth and fifth minutes: much more humane! And the guitar "ascending" from out of the birth canal effect is brilliant! My favorite song on the album! (10/10)

7. "Rebirth" (7:01) Oh, oh! Are we in for some Norse Black Metal? O Dark :30 and I'm still not sure. Even the delicate soft interlude at the one minute mark has me on pins and needles. 1:40: Here it comes. It's building! 2:10: Oh! It's so cute! It's just a big Totoro! 3:00: or is it the bad Stay Puft Marshmallow Man? We'll know soon. 3:45: He's leaving! He's not going to kill us or destroy our city! He likes Nature! 4:30: And video games. He's social! He has a family! And friends! Aww! He was just looking for his own kind! And they're going to live happily ever after! Such a cinematic gem! (9/10)

8. "Break The Safe, Pt. 2" (4:18) Safe. Solid. Unbreakable. Cohesive. Even pretty. And hypnotic. Cool Devy Townsend ending. Likable and yet unspectacular. (9/10)

A five stars masterpiece of instrumental progressive rock music. While I see lots of potential for improvement--both is sound and composition--these guys are definitely on to something!

Kettlespider have released a new 2017 album called "Kettlespider", a followup to their successful 2012 debut "Avadante". The album has eight tracks to make up the 8 legs of the estranged spider. The cover sat on the kitchen table for a while and scared my wife several times as she caught sight of the crouching spider. The packaging is effective enough, replete with a cool booklet with schematics on how to construct your own mechanical arachnid in 100 easy steps. The band make an attractive centrefold, but they keep their distance; that's personal space for you. They've also hidden their 4 wheel drive but the tyre tracks are still evident. The next page is the money shot of the band, then a shot of a scruffy dog, and the next pages show the band recording in shadows, looking for a light switch. Behind the CD is another spideriffic schematic.

It is a completely instrumental album from end to end with some heavy sounds juxtaposed by quiet reflective passages. The musicians are well accomplished, and a very tight unit, having played together for some time on other projects and Kettlespider adventures. The band play on this album like their life depended on it; Fyfe on keys and squiggly bits, Ashburn and Boyd-Gerny on axes, Andrews on boom bass, and Wood on drums and banging devices.

Kettlespider explode out of the blocks with a dynamic metal crunching blaster, "The Climber". It blows the gasket off the carboretter with a ton of staccato guitar punches and a relentless rhythm section. It is followed by the more complex "Circus" with soaring lead breaks and synth swirls. The jazz trumpet sounds augment the soundscape masterfully. "Samsara" flows along beautifully with acoustic guitar flourishes and infectious rhythms.

"Break the Safe Pt. 1" is a bone jarring keyboard workout with guitar blasts and thunderous drums. "Anubis" locks into hypnotic drum beats and a melodic lead guitar riff. It flows from heavy prog to a light refreshing mood, and swings into odd time signatures. Then it submerges into soft keyboards and glorious trumpets. The awesome lead fills and sporadic tempo shifts that keep the metronome swinging in crazy directions make this one of the best on the album.

"Life" blasts out of the speakers with hammered ferocity. There are compulsive percussion and bass lines to create a fractured rhythm, then a sweeping orchestral keyboard ignites the darkness. Time meter changes and galloping guitars competing with syncopated drums make this a definitive highlight.

"Rebirth" chugs along frenetically and breaks through the prog prison into wide open spaces of free form synth pads and bass. The wall of sound permeates the atmosphere. Then the bass gets impatient and starts its own rhythm, accompanied by sporadic guitar strumming, and a lead break with hammer-ons and pull-offs and sizzling string bends. A chilling high pitched synth whine screams in with another adrenaline pumping time sig. It is a fabulous track.

The eighth leg of the spider is "Break the Safe Pt.2" closing the album wonderfully with uptempo drums and guitar vibrations competing over the retro keyboard sound. It explodes into a paroxysm of keyboard wizardry and guitar excellence. It is a great way to cap off the album.

Overall, "Kettlespider" is adventurous prog with some heavy guitar replenished by orchestrated keyboards and a relentless rhythm section. Being an instrumental album it is up to the listener to engage in whatever way they seem fit. It could be a great album to throw on to kick back to after a heavy day, or could serve as a way to fire up the imagination as the music lifts the spirit and always comes across as exciting. The musicianship is excellent and innovative so vocals are not necessary. I can recommend this album from these Australian proggers without reservation. Take the Kettlespider test and taste for yourself.

'Kettlespider' - Kettlespider (78/100)

It's surreal to think it's already been five years since I first heard Kettlespider. It was 2012, and they had reached out to me personally for feedback on their debut Avadante, then newly released and full of potential. Kettlespider's tightly-wound instrumental prog already displayed a skill well beyond their years; on a more personal level the band's sound really mirrored my listening tastes around that time.

Fast-forward a fifth of my lifetime, and I still remember Avadante and the band responsible for it with warmth. Since that introduction my life has changed dramatically, and my musical headspace along with it. I've probably heard a couple thousand new albums since then; the fact I still fondly recall Avadante arguably lends more to this band's credit than anything I could have said at the time.

When a new band knocks it out of the park like that on their first go, the natural conversation to have next is whether they'll live up to the potential. Five years is a long time for anyone to sit on their second album, but I've got to imagine life has been just as busy for the guys in Kettlespider. Even if everything has changed around them, the things that made me love this band are still here with this self-titled return.

As familiar and derivative as the style itself is, Kettlespider were special for the fresh way they approached it. With a lot of the instrumental prog rock/metal I've heard, the musicians involved tend to use that liberation from vocals as an opportunity to go wild with technical instrumentation. If the common complaint people have with tech- happy instrumental bands like Canvas Solaris is that they're somehow lacking heart, the "soulful" alternative tends to involve inordinate amounts of tender David Gilmour solo worship. Those emotional bands still miss the point of what's really often lacking in this style. But Kettlespider knows.

The common preconception is that proper, concise songwriting is contrary to instrumental prog on multiple levels. Kettlespider are lively musicians with a dynamic range of proggy influences. You've got the heart of Pink Floyd, all the way to the bombast of Dream Theater. None of that would have justified me remembering Kettlespider for this long however. It's the tight, melodic approach to composition that lends this band their distinctive personality. Sparing the vocals didn't lead them away from writing palpable earworms and would-be choruses into their music. There aren't any overblown solos on this album, no longwinded freeforming, nothing that could really be seen as inessential to the structure of the music. Across the eight songs here, to varying extents, Kettlespider have effectively translated pop songwriting sensibilities onto an instrumental progressive format.

Each of the songs (or "spider's legs" as the band thinks of them) are immediately enjoyable and cozy, in part due to my obvious nostalgia for prog rock and Kettlespider, but not least of all for their tendency to keep the experience light and friendly. Don't get me wrong-- they still come across as very technically nuanced, but technique's never more than a means to an end for them.

Kettlespider's self-restraint lends them a middle-of-the-road accessibility by instrumental prog standards. They feel consistently focused, and while this comes at the cost of never getting to hear them really letting loose, it's an easy thing to live with when the songwriting's this good as a result. The only significant thing that weighs against the album is the sense that their parts all feel derived from other prog bands. There are many sections that sound directly torn from the script of one of their influences; nothing sounds like it was it was completely born with them. Kettlespider's material can feel like a collage of prog I've been familiar with long before 2012. It's no more true here than with Avadante. If anything, it makes that uncommonly

It's easy to imagine a breezily uplifting track like "Circus" passing for an above-average Dream Theater instrumental with all unnecessary padding scrubbed away. "The Climber", "Circus", "Anubis" and "Life" all particularly feel like we're catching Kettlespider on the best of days. I've listened to this album many, many times over the last few months, and although comparisons to bands like Dream Theater are guaranteed by certain parts here, the accessibly technical vibe of their music feels most akin to Joe Satriani; playful and bountifully talented, but never testing the listener's patience to demonstrate it. Five years was a long time coming for Kettlespider to make this album, and I'm glad to have experienced it. They reminded me of the comfy joy I felt listening to Avadante; in that sense, this is everything I could have asked for.