THE FOLD

The Fold is a very Porcupine Tree and Steve Wilson influenced album with glimpses of King Crimson and some jazz touches. It's a very stimulating and funny mixture between beautiful, melancholic and mellotron-infused melodies broken by very hard guitar riffs and even some hoarse vocals. Very similar to Porcupine Tree in concept and style, but maybe with some transitions between soft and hard not as good implemented and natural as the Steven Wilson's band.

The playing of the band is not virtuoso oriented, with some exceptions like the incredible bass solo in Goodbye, but they make a very good job in general terms. Nevertheless, I think that this technical playing is not necessary in The Fold because the truly important fact of this album is the songwriting, which is marvelous except for a pair of rough contrasts and some fragments which are not so splendid as the rest.

Best Tracks: the level of the album is outstanding! So, it's really challenging to pick separate tracks of this record. But if I must choose, I would pick the mellow and obscure Something, the very The Raven that Refused to Sing sounding and very well singed Goodbye, and also the incredible Burning My Dreams, which contains the best riffs of the album.

Conclusion: Karcius has created a truly remarkable modern prog-rock record with The Fold. Maybe its style is not the most original one because this music automatically brings other artists to mind, as I mentioned before. But the songwriting is so good that it's impossible not to enjoy this album if you are into modern prog.

Specially recommended for Steven Wilson and King Crimson fans!

My rating: ****