FROM ENDANGERED TO EXTINCT

Space Metal. That's about the only description of this album that I can imagine. I very much enjoyed Jupiter Society's first album, "First Contact/Last Warning". It has a great mix of funky riffs, choirs, and spaciness. Yet, the production was severely marred.

So, I gave this new album a listen. For those who don't know, Jupiter Society is the brainchild of Carl Westholm, vocalist for Carptree. If you've heard Carptree, you know that they are brilliantly strange, and this makes its way into Jupiter Society, as well. "From Endangered to Extinct", unfortunately, continues the series of recent albums that use the idea of an alien invasion and the resulting human cooperation as tools to show us how stupid the human race is. We shouldn't be killing each other. We are all human. While this is a great message, it's been done to death.

The music, also, seems to show little progression from the very first album. Again, we have funky riffing, choirs (excellent ones, at that), weird vocals from Carl, and a total "blah" when it comes to all the other instruments. This album sounds too much like the first, only not as good. In fact, the first album has some unique songs, while "From Endangered to Extinct" omitted much of what made the other albums special. That is not to say that this album is a waste: It has some great moments, particularly on 'Invasion", "Queen of Armageddon", and "Fight Back". But for everything great moment, there is an even more cliche moment. For instance, on "Fight Back", we get some awesome passages that feature the greatest choir arrangements on the album. However, this song also has the worse chorus I've heard in 2013. This is disappointing, to say the least. Fans of Carptree and different progressive metal will enjoy this outing, but don't expect a masterpiece or even something you'll remember by 2014.

Swedish project JUPITER SOCIETY is the creative vehicle of composer and musician Carl Westholm, a former member of Candlemass, also known as the creative force behind the Swedish project Carptree. Jupiter Society has been a going concern for a few years at this point. From what I understand this is a studio-based project only, and so far three albums have been released under this moniker. "From Endangered to Extinct" is the most recent of these, and was released through Carl's own label Fosfor Creation in 2013.

Jupiter Society's take on progressive metal of the space opera variety will probably not be a universally appealing one, as the instrumentation is rather dramatic and bombastic, and the vocals may well be too emotional for comfort for some. But those who love and appreciate a high-quality dystopian journey and tend to enjoy bands like Ayreon as well as metal bands such as Candlemass and Triptykon should try this band and this album out for size. For me personally this is a CD that is fairly high up on my desert island list of recordings.

I have only recently come across this 2013 album, the third from this Swedish project led by Carl Westholm (Carptree). This is very much in the progressive metal area, coming across as being fairly similar to Ayreon in many ways. It is bombastic, over the top, with the guitars providing a grinding bottom edge for the keyboards to lift over, and there will be many progheads who will find the intensity, energy and sheer heaviness just too much for them. But, given that I listen to extreme metal as much as I do to prog then I find it absolutely fine.

There are times when it is symphonic, and during 'Invasion' the intensity levels just keep growing and one wonders if they are going to be able to hold it all together. The layers of sound just keep coming, like a wall of music, in a way that I normally associate with Devin Townsend but here with more variety and dynamics. There is a clear understanding from Westholm that music needs to be soft to also be hard, delicate to also be robust, and at times there is the impression that there is an orchestra of metal all being conducted to pull it all together. Those into symphonic metal and/or prog metal should look this out.