THE FALL OF BLISS

Well played and produced, this album has a dark mood which reminds me to the work of the Argentinian Alejandro Matos. Both Methexis (Nikitas Kissonas) and Matos are multi- instrumentists and one-man projects. The vocals are the most different thing: Kissonas has a big vocal extension from falsetto to baritone and is sometimes able of very powerful notes.

"Eradicated Will" is the longest and one of the easiest tracks of the album. A good introduction which hides some of the darkness to come. The melody is Crimsonian and the baritone pitch gives it a Canterbury flavor, but the interludes on which the guitar is more powerful and the vocal chorus move the ambient to the post-rock area. An artsy thing in any case, but not too challenging. Of course one has to be in the right mood for it. The guitar solo that comes after a slow dark passage is one of the best things of the whole album, but it''s clear that guitar is the main instrument for Kissonas, or at least it seems so to me. Let me just add that before getting into this album I needed several listens, more than usual.

"Poetic Mirrors Wound Heroes" has a lazy start and an unusual signature. Again, I hear a hint of Canterbury, just in little things like few piano notes before the singing starts in example. The vocals here are (not too) high pitched and recorded twice and overlapped to form a jazzy choir. The keyboard riff is good and I like imagining Robert Wyatt's voice singing on it.

"Those Howling Wolves" starts low-volume and with low-pitched vocals. The idea of howling comes from a keyboard sound which seems taken from horror movies of the 60s. The base is provided by an electric piano. Piano is the base for "Lines On A Bust". The song is good and more melodic than the preceeding one, but two consecutive so slow songs should not be placed in this order. Taken alone this is an excellent song. Jazzy in some parts, reminding of Greg Lake in some other, especially when piano and vocals perform a short crescendo to end the song on a very high note that''s almost a scream. Now some rock.

"Track The Saviours" could be called Heavy Prog or even Prog-Metal, but the melody is more challenging than one could expect. We can consider it split in two: a metal part and a chorus which seems taken from Soft Machine (in terms of mood). Nice but not easy, as the two parts are very different. The good is that there are no sudden changes and everything flows smoothly.

On "The Aftermath" the melody is quite challenging and the vocals are again low-pitched. I have the impression of a kind of reprise from the first track...some circularity.

The title track intro, which lasts less than two minutes, is just a short piece of classical guitar. Good but not special. The birds behind can''t lighten the general darkness, but it''s a good listen. It proceeds with "Part 1". The hard guitar explosion after the calm start makes me think to Sysiphus Part 4 (Ummagumma), then what follows is a sequence of distorted harmonies which are very dark and sad. Neither the good acoustic guitar riff can make a smile rise. The Interlude is very classically oriented, at least in the starting phase. This is I think the proper song. On the album it''s defined as instrumental, but there''s a sang chorus which is then reprised on Part II. This "interlude" features another very good guitar riff. Even though still very dark, this is one of the most accessible tracks. "Part II" closes this mini-suite in the darkest possible way. The heavy guitar makes me think even to Kayo Dot and the vocal''s melody is even grotesque. Join minds Join hearts Free your sight It looks like a positive message, but listen to how it''s screamed into the dark. It's a good album which I could rate 3.5. This time I want to round it down because I think Kissonas shows his capacities and potential here, and has the possibility of improving a lot with his next release. You can order it from bandcamp as "name your price" with a minimum of 10 dollars. The package contains some painting drawn by the painter Dimitra Papadimitriou as well as the album cover is.