LAND OF THE SUN

Norwegian band FATAL FUSION was formed in 2008 by a fivesome of musicians who had plied their trade in various bands since the 1990's or thereabouts, who then got together out of a joint desire to create music that crossed multiple stylistic boundaries and also incorporated the styles and sounds of bands from the 70's and 80's they enjoy listening to. "Land of the Sun" is their debut album and was self-released towards the end of 2010.

"Land of the Sun" is a solid package of retro-oriented progressive rock with a slight emphasis on the harder-edged variety, sporting three high-quality epic or near-epic-length creations and a handful of shorter constructions containing slightly less intriguing material. At least for art rock fans, those fond of sophisticated harder-edged blues rock will most likely reason the other way around. If you enjoy 70's-style art rock, the 35 or so minutes that those three pieces clock in at in length will make this a disc well worth investigating, and if you have a soft spot for sophisticated but varied harder-edged rock from the same era, Fatal Fusion is a band you most likely will adore. A skilled and talented act, one I hope we'll hear much more from it in future years.

Norwegian band from Oslo with a strong Blues Rock background.Keyboardist Erlend Engebretsen and bassist Lasse Lie played together in the 80's cover band ''No Name'' and later with ''Moonstone'' along with Erlend's brother Audun on drums.Failing to land a decent singer, this group disbanded in 1999 and in 2002 the trio formed another cover combo under the name of Chrystal Blues.Five years later this act would also fall apart due to singer problems and a desire for more adventurous musical paths.Thus, Fatal Fusion were born in 2008 and the three musicians recruited singer Knut Erik Grontvedt, followed by guitarist Stig Selnes, who had been a member of the Prog Metal band Agate.In 2010 Fatal Fusion debuted with their first, independent release ''Land of the sun''.

While the bluesy influences of the group's main core have been left more or less in the past, the evident 70's Classic Rock inspirations are definitely among Fatal Fusion's preferable styles, especially the music of DEEP PURPLE, LED ZEPPELIN and URIAH HEEP.As a result the shorter tracks reveal a definite vintage power akin to the aforementioned legends with punchy lead guitars and rock-to-the-bone solos as well as deep Hammond organ washes, while you should add to the menu the very Hard Rock-oriented voice of Grontvedt.Entertaining, enjoyable but not fully convincing material, which fails to escape from its own sources of influence.The longer cuts though are much more interesting, musically intricate and quite lyrical when needed, without losing the general orientation of the group or any inch of the pure power of the previous tracks.The sound becomes richer and more original with the use of Mellotron, electric piano and synthesizers and the combination of in-your-face rockin' grooves with more elaborate, instrumental arrangements ranges from decent to simply fascinating.Moreover there seems to be a flexibility throughout the compositions with spacey/symphonic ambiental textures followed by jazzier moves and a kind of deep FLOYD-ian atmosphere in the more sensitive guitar solos.These different angles are nicely connected to form long and interesting semi-prog suites like the 12-min. ''Broken man'' or the great 16-min. opus ''Out to the fields'', where melody meets energy meets atmosphere in a lovely combination of modern and nostalgic, analog soundbeats.

Nice and fairly recommended debut by this Norwegian act.70's-inspired Heavy Prog, where grandieur meets pomposity meets pure rock power in a collection of well-executed tracks.