IN THRALL TO HERESY

I was at a gig one night, hanging around during the soundcheck, when I recognised one of the musicians, Felix Lun (violin). I hadn't seen Felix in years, back when he was a member of Shepherds of Cassini, a band I had met a few times and really loved. He remembered me and we chatted about my old reviews, and later that night I also bumped into drummer Omar Al-Hashimi. I often saw multi-instrumentalist Brendan Zwaan (vocals, guitar, keyboards) around the scene or in the studio, so I was asked what had happened with Shepherds, with Omar telling me that bassist Vitesh Bava had moved to Australia which was the reason why they had been dormant, but that he had just returned to NZ so who knew what the future might hold?

I must admit I never expected a reformation to happen, but the original quartet are now back with their third album, only ten years on from the last one. I often used to see Brendan playing when he was also a member of Mice on Stilts playing keyboards, but when SoC played live he was on guitar and the band were a much heavier entity altogether and that is very much the case again here. They have again brought in David Rhodes to produce the album, and he is very much in his element with the manic drumming being captured to perfection and clear delineation between the instruments. Although they are a powering metallic entity they are much more than that with Felix using his electric violin to drive melody in a frenetic fashion, a bass which may be tied in with the guitars or moving elsewhere, straight 4/4 or weird time signatures while there are also Middle Eastern influences.

One never knows where the music is going to take us and while it is always incredibly metallic, the prog stylings are there for all to see, and it is difficult in some ways for me to think that the last time I saw Brendan he was in Red Room Studios adding delicate piano to singer/songwriter Lee Martin's latest album. One can only hope that SoC can be get the recognition they s richly deserve outside New Zealand as we are a tiny country at the end of the world and there is no doubt that music as exciting, enthralling and all-encompassing as this needs to be heard very widely indeed.