SPIRAL

Spiral is a Psychedelic/Space rock band from the US that was formed in the late 2000s. They have released 14 full length albums since the year 2010 to 2019, their 14th album was released in June of 2019 and is called "Anomaly".

Those of you who are fans of this band know that "Anomaly" is the name of the daughter of a man named Rip. This album is the last of a trilogy of records put out by the band that is based on quite a complex story. The first part of the trilogy is featured on their 2011 album "The Capital in Ruins". This band felt this album could be improved upon, so they re-recorded it and released the new version in 2017 and named it simply "Ruins". The second part of the trilogy is the subject of their 2012 album "The Traveler". Finally, the 3rd part has been released and it concludes the story.

In a nutshell, the story goes that Anomaly is the daughter of scientist Rip, who is known as The Traveler. He has the power to gift Anomaly immortal life, so he does. However, she has the desire to experience the pain of death, so she devotes her life in trying to know what it is like to die, yet she can't, so she develops her own death cult. To make a long story short, her father dies and then she experiences the sorrow of death, so she wants to go to a distant planet where her father now resides in death and travels there, but then realizes what a great gift immorality is, so she finally decides to accept that. I know that is quite a condensed version of the story, but I only wanted to give you an idea of the story, it's up to you if you want to explore it further.

The album "Anomaly" has tracks on it that were originally written back in 2011 when the first part of the trilogy was released. The band thought the songs were so excellent, that they put them in storage to be used later, and a few of them are now seeing the light in this album. The album consists of 5 tracks with a total run time of 41 minutes, 3 of the tracks being over 10 minutes. The current line up for the band are Bill Hatfield on guitar and keyboard, Aaron Frale on guitar, Chris Boat on keyboards, bass, vocals and guitar, Denzel Thompson on vocals and Senda Linaugh on vocals. The album is available digitally.

The album begins with the shortest track (about 5 minutes) called "The Space Shaman". The psychedelic leanings are obvious right away with the echoing guitar and processed vocals as it starts ominously quiet, but a sudden outburst increases the heaviness and the vocals become harsh and fuzzy giving the music the stoner/space rock feel. The music follows the soft to heavy sound with a very solid ending. "Dreams of the Next Life" begins with a heavy bass line and solid drums and the layers of heavy guitars and near screaming vocals. The madcap vocal technique is fitting for the story, and used as such. Organ and guitars cool things off before the 2 minute mark, but everything stays dark and foreboding, letting you know that things can change quickly. A nice rolling bass line carries the song forward and the organ builds back the steam accompanied by fuzzy guitar. It's a great sound, heavy enough to appeal to progressive metal lovers, yet with the stoner aspect that lovers of Queens of the Stone Age will enjoy. The keyboards later develop a nice riff that keep the music robust and exciting. Later, more madness ensues in the vocals as psychotic screaming and ranting continues. Some might be turned off by this, but I find it quite necessary in this instance.

"Anomaly's Death Trip" is the first of the next 3 tracks that land around the 10 minute mark. The song starts softly with dark chords, a strummed guitar and female vocals that are quite airy and soft, even vulnerable sounding. There is a slight gothic undertone to the music here. But the music soon takes on a nice softly moving track as percussion comes in and the organ give you memories of early organ led tracks from Pink Floyd, that also gives the track a nice smooth feeling as it rolls forward. The vocals are absolutely beautiful as the character describes her feelings. The more minimal sound of the beginning of the track returns as the lyrics become more important and the attention is given to them until after the 4 minute mark. The singing stops, but the organ and the dark chords keep things soft and ominous. Soft guitar notes play supported by the organ as the song moves slowly and dreamily onward. At 7 minutes, the ticking of a cymbal and the eventual addition of hesitant percussion breathes some more forward momentum in the track. A steady rhythm is reached just after the 8 minute mark and the guitars drive the music into heavier territory and a more space rock vibe that increases in intensity until the end.

"Death Cult" floats along in the beginning but soon develops its rhythm with a thumping bass line and drums while one guitar plays an arpeggiated pattern and the other guitar builds and builds until the music becomes hard and quite rock solid. Again, that metal mentality is there with the rough stoner vibe which mixes quite well together. Shaky vocals begin, again with a level of madness, but less screaming. I love this sound. The theme develops even more as it nears the middle, then at 5 minutes, the music resets itself and becomes more space rock with buzzing synth effects and fuzzy guitars. The synth takes over with an excellent solo of arpeggio patterns as cymbals crash. This ends and the bass pounds its way along until heavy guitars take over again. Then plucked guitar notes add a new texture to everything and then this morphs into an improvised solo with the guitar. This will get your heart pounding as the tension builds to a climactic scene complete with crowd noises.

"Anomally Dreams" starts much more serenely with strummed guitar. Male vocals, not heavy this time, and more sane, sing along with the guitar. A lovely melody becomes apparent. Soon, the band comes in with a nice, flowing sound emphasized by the organ and a heavy background. Soon, a lovely guitar solo begins, again similar to some of the best Pink Floyd songs, and develops quite nicely as it goes. Before 4 minutes, the music calms to just an organ playing. Soon percussion kicks in again, and now we get a "Procol Harem" style sound. The fuzzy guitars echo the melody established by the organ as the song builds. The music has so much depth now, and you can actually feel the heart and soul that went into the sound of this album. A sudden change in rhythm at 6 minutes gives the track a different direction as the beat gets more solid. Again the organ starts to stir new emotions as it builds and things get heavier. Then, the tension is released as the music reaches a plateau and everything levels out, but continues to be somewhat loud. Guitars guarantee that the album will end with a solid feeling, and you actually feel sad when it all fades away at the end, because you just want it to continue.

Wow. Another great album in 2019. The overall sound is heavy with a lot of darkness and solid music to make lovers of dark metal and space rock happy, plus dynamics and surprises that will keep lovers of progressive music happy also. This is another highlight of the year so far. The music is so well developed, the themes and characters also well thought out. There is a lot of heart in this album, and you can tell that a lot of time went into this music, but at the same time, it has the rough edges that space rock lovers crave, and doesn't sound polished either, but sounds authentic. Highly recommended.

Senda's Song is a shorter singles edit of a track called "The Memories Speak" from Spiral's "The Capital in Ruins" album of a few years back. It features Spiral contributor Senda Shallow doing a fragile and emotive vocal contrasted occasionally by the harder-edged guitar and programmed drumming. These fall away again leaving Senda singing over what sounds like a flanged effect on the guitar. The B side is an interesting unreleased track from the Spiral vaults (which must be enormous given their prolific creative habits). "The Sun Cauterizes His Soul" is a slow almost folksy based track with strummed guitar chords and cool upfront bass lines complimenting. The vocals are hollow and resigned, giving expression to horrific post-disaster imagery of the lyrics. But there is never any crushing here, Spiral goes the other direction with this and laments the pain in a less extreme manner. Nothing wrong with these songs, the rating is just noting this is a "fans" release. Senda's Song should be heard in full on Capital album and the B side is nice but not all that necessary. Great cover art in the Spiral tradition.

I might be missing, or maybe I'm expecting something that never comes, nevertheless though I find this to be an intelligent but somewhat empty record. The vocals do very little for me and the guitar, while proficient, is a bit too muddy sounding for my tastes. It seems as though the band really only has two sounds, the slow atmospheric horror sound and the heavier, faster, guitar driven desert rock sound. I'm not too sure how the two work together and, to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure I like either one of them on their own.

An intelligent record, but one that's hard to sit through with very little to keep the listener engaged.

rom the homecity of the mighty Heisenberg, Albuquerque in New Mexico, started this extremely prolific duo of Chris Boat and Aaron Frale in late-00's.While Frale provides vocals and guitars, Boat appears to handle all the rest of the instrumental armour: keyboards, bass and guitars, while he also sings in Spiral's works.They made their debut via bandcamp in July 2010 with the album ''The death of Billy Jensen'', a weird concept album talking about the Jensens, living in a house in the desert and having a unique ability to bring to life exact genetic copies of of themselves, after the youngest of the family members kills all the rest and regiving birth to them.

Spiral displayed all the elements that more or less followed them in their career.The duo played a modern Psychedelic Rock, often led by heavier guitar tunes, featuring plenty of vocal distortions, always led by the raw electric guitars with some supporting keyboards and sinister, ambiental soundscapes.This might appear to be some great musc on paper, but the mass of sampled voices and the constant mania for producing downtempo textures and minimalistic images definitely do not belong among the album's peaks.The concept seems to lead the music here, the deep lyrics are supported by the appropriate soundscapes and, depending on these, Spiral deliver angry riffs, slow-paced lead guitars, spacey underlines and even orchestral atmospheres.The cohesion between the different climates is among the most efficient elements of the album, what really hurts Spiral's debut is the rather one-dimensional electric patterns and the lack of instrumentally richer moments.Lots of spoken parts, effects and the aforementioned ambiental ideas are closer to a film score and not a proper album to listen at home.The more energetic passages though allow the duo's talent to be unleashed and the potential is certainly there.

I can see this as the perfect soundtrack for a related movie, but for a regular album ''The death of Billy Jensen'' has some obvious flaws.Free bandcamp release, modern Prog maniacs should propably have a listen to Spiral's debut...2.5 stars.

Death. Prelude to the next Spiral chapter....

Spiral's journey of into the hot barren afternoon of their musical landscapes continues in the new year. The two track single "Photograph" is a prelude to their next upcoming full length album this spring, which will be called "Our Final Days on Bellicus Prime."

The first song "Photograph" is a rumination on death told in two or three different scenarios I believe. The three different musical sections are all very cool, the first a sort of longing, slow chord exploration very much in Spiral style with tortured vocals. The second jumps to a full blown metal guitar with huge, skull shattering power chords. And the third is the contrasting break, the breather section that again features the violin of Felicia Karas. I just love it when they do this. Spiral is so heavy and intense that these sections are really complimentary, they can be violin, or female voice, other times they have used keyboard drone, the effect is really quite perfect...giving you a taste of beauty, a moment to compose yourself....and then WHAM! Back to the mayhem...... The lyrics in the final section were especially moving to me. Someone who lost a loved one clings to their digital footprint, their journal, status updates, photos. She is dead and all he has is her written word past and his future is pouring through them, trying to feel something. Not too hard to imagine such a sad scenario.

The second track "Zombie" was an outtake from the Bellicus sessions. The is bread and butter Spiral, a slow, brooding gila monster two-step with a delirious solo by Casey Mraz, another frequent Spiral contributor. It certainly is soundtrack for zombie encounter nightmares. If these two songs are any indication the upcoming album should be another interesting chapter. I'll be waiting for it in the next dusty town down the highway, with burrito and a sweating bottle of beer, watching out for those characters from the Spiral stories, past and future...... As always, fantastic ideas for their cover art.

Spiral are a very unique psych-doom-stoner-thrash band born of the desert sands. "Imagine the Void" is a two-track single from Citizen, one of my favorite Spiral albums to this day despite the fact that they have released much more elaborate works since. I like the story behind the album, which recapping goes something like this: man is trapped in a soulless futuristic society controlled by machines, where humans are forced into labor not to produce things of value, but to keep them occupied. I guess we're pretty much there.

At night he stares up into (what he thinks) is the sky and imagines traveling out into the infinite darkness. He rubs his hands over his smooth metallic face and feels the area between it and his neck. After a few years of this he begins to think that maybe his head has too many layers and perhaps one of them ' the outermost ' is not his own.

Musically the tracks are a bit more economical than later Spiral which is often heavy and crushing. In contrast "Imagine the Void" almost sounds "lighter" at times, not a common feeling on their albums, but it cruises along with the guitar lines direct and driving and the vocals more tempered than usual. I love the ringing chords and vocals in the first half, before it breaks into a tasty electric solo. "Citizens of the Earth" has the same linear guitar feel but with a much more intense vocal. Lots of fuzz on the guitars and urgent, layered vocals leave a feeling of desperation.

Both songs are very cool as usual but I'd urge newbies to jump right into the actual albums instead. Most of them have cool stories and concepts that benefit from getting the entire feast. Check out Spiral at their Bandcamp page linked at their artist page. Beware that they are pretty heavy and dark, so if you like sunny happy prog this is not your band.

For their fourth full-length release the New Mexico-based duo decided to take their sound to another level, the one related to long epic compositions.Additionally a concept around an almost mad scientist named Rip was developed by Chris Boat and Aaron Frale.Rip invented a machine able to change organic material, theoretically solving the problem of immortality.Rip was the first to be injected with a strong dosage and several people over the years were injected with smaller dosages.The result was the whole humanity to be sampled by his machine, but all of them were finally dead except Rip, who tried the strongest of all dosages.For the first time Frale does not appear as a vocalist and Senda Shallow/Denzel Thompson help the duo on vocals along with Casey Mraz on lead guitars.The album ''The capital in ruins'' was released in May 2011.

A pair of 10-min. epics and another pair of over 20-min. ones along with a shorter track complete for over 70 minutes of Psychedelic/Progressive Rock music, full of obscure atmospheres, stretched guitar textures and lyrical passages.The sound of Spiral is still based in an excessive deegree on mono- or dual electric guitars with atmospheric moves, extended solos and long, scratching riffs and the main problem remains the generally one-dimensional sound.Keyboards are used only sporadically and the best moments come from Boat's very good lyrical performance and the fair amount of haunting moods created by the sharp electric guitars.However the overall feeling is that most tracks are overstretched without any particular reason and a length close to their previous albums would have been definitely more convincing.Some acidic soundscapes with minimalistic effects apparently help the flow of the concept's story like on the long self-titled composition, which is basically built around these soundscapes, some basic riffs and Boat's expressive voice.The atmosphere relies on psychedelic lines strengthened by some heavier guitar-based tempos, although there are no high gears in a rather downtempo work.The last, melancholic track ''Without others'' is definitely the best of all.Very emotional lyrics, strong early-70's PINK FLOYD influences, light psychedelic grooves, total absence of fillers and a grandiose ending section with orchestral keyboards and powerful guitars show again what was already known: The potential for Spiral is still around.

''The capital in ruins'' suffers from the basic problems regarding Spiral's style: over the top guitar-based soundscapes with few variations beyond this familiar path.Following the story line will help the listener appreciate the release more and thus the album seems like a decent recommendation for fans of modern, atmospheric Rock...2.5 stars.

Beware the snake. He always takes half of what he gives.

Spiral is a prolific band from the southwestern United States whose surroundings influence every fiber of their surreal and dark progressive rock. Chris Boat and Aaron Frale are self proclaimed children of the desert. Having grown up amongst the lonely stretches of cacti and stars they note that their music "breathes sand." That tradition certainly continues in their latest epic release titled "Mind Trip in A Minor." It was intended as one long track but had to be split into chapters for website considerations. The album is a diversion from their massive Ruins trilogy but it features yet another strange and provocative story that is the Spiral trademark. This time out the Spiral duo welcome a new member to the fold, guitarist Chris Walker. They are also joined by some wonderful recurring guests in Casey Mraz and Felicia Karas.

"Mind Trip" is a journey indeed and once again Spiral creates music and storyline which support each other. Here the tale is like some dark fable where one is trapped in a cyclical nightmare. Our character awakens in a horrible dream littered with bodies and visions, he travels through a maze and finds a little girl who joins him. Never far away is the snake who represents collective fear and things unknowable. I won't give away the conclusion as it will be more enjoyable to discover yourself. But the point is that the music perfectly mirrors the darkness of the tale, where the repeating musical phrases convey the fact that story repeats itself over and over. As always, the question is how to stop the madness and we don't know if our character can. The feelings this would invoke are expressed quite well by the band and they are not always pleasant. Spiral has made some difficult albums and "Mind Trip" is no exception. If you have trouble with harsh sounding albums you'd best start with one of their earlier works.

This album requires the patient listener unplug from the world's distractions and enter the trip as an involved party. Ominous and thick, heavy and chunky guitars move like tanks across a battlefield....often slow and lumbering with a similar oppressive drumming. Chris and Aaron share vocals I believe, but I think it is Chris who can create the sound of dying with his shrieks....he will be relatively quiet and eerie with this shimmering effect on the soft vocals, disorienting and uneasy for the listener....and then he will just unload and God help you if you're not prepared. It can be extremely harsh, unpleasant at first, after some time the approach unveils itself and makes sense. It can make for a powerful listening session for the listener willing to commit to a dark room and good headphones. They also nail the lead guitar work wonderfully...this time out the leads have a more focused, succinct edge which I appreciate more than simply long form jamming.

After an unrelentingly savage opener is the marvelous "Cave in the Oak" which reminds me (again) of an Antonius Rex track, so visual, with haunting guitar chords and these keyboards that sound like harpsichord first and then wordless female vocals later, with simple melodic keyboard notes, floating atmospheres, and heavy bass line. Really sweet track! "In the Desert" is another breather from the heavier tracks at least with the music. There is a nice acoustic guitar line that repeats and repeats, again the circular, while the story discusses the "naked bestial creature" eating his own bitter heart with enjoyment. The only moment of levity comes in "A Face in the Sand" when our character meets a little girl, the lone bit of sweetness in this dark world. Both already understand it will not end well but choose to spend the short time together anyway. She has been trapped in the nightmare for ages and he genuinely wants to help, for which he will pay a heavy price.

The album alternates several times between long, grueling rock pieces and shorter, softer interludes which offer time to regroup. It eventually culminates in the horror of "The Snake", a 9-minute depiction of "everything you fear". More brutal drumming, extreme vocals, and heavy power chords that explode in finale, before a softer guitar solo and more pleasing keyboards drift off into the next tale down the line. The closing track is quite special. Felicia Karas returns and does what she always does for Spiral. Her strings introduce a completely different and exquisite color and texture to music that can be quite intense. Set against sad keyboard lines and acoustic, her violin to me represents the gaze of the two characters on each other as our story reaches its sad conclusion (or does it?), and in fact she doubles them up....laying one violin line over the other....a very cool effect!

Once again the album art is fantastic and worthy of your wall. "Mind Trip in A Minor" would be on my list of memorable 2012 releases and you can get a copy or sample a stream at thespiral.bandcamp.com.

Met more energetic, more drone desert rock, with unsuitable artificial noises.

Suppose "Mind Trip In A Minor" might be another place where "The Traveler" has got on. Their play, just like squeezing heavy sandstorm out, is heavier, deeper and tighter than on the previous creation indeed, and especially Chris (Walker) plays the guitar more simply, more sensitively, and more directly, in fourth / fifth tracks "In The Desert / A Face In The Sand" ... sounds like the masterpiece in this album for me, very challenging. Basically dry and hot sunbeam sounds are in the same vein of "The Traveler", but quite simple riffs have got more of drone and more of slime like delicious death agony. Although enough "Neues" cannot be heard anymore, their strong policy / guideline for "Desert Rock" should be maintained I imagine. Upon this point their instrumental section can be terrific. On the other hand, let me say that I wonder the reason they'd processed their voices with an effector. Their voices may be far from good, but unpolished, smokey voices could have been one of their mysterious addictions of sound, right? Yes, whether fine or poor, their vocal can be one of their characteristics on playing. Artificially effector-based voices can be only vexing noises for me, that might kick their original fantasy away sadly.

For us progressive rock freaks, what does the word "progressive" mean? A pleasure to find something new I consider. We will find something newer upon their works in future ... hope so.

Suicide, fear, abuse, violence. It's the Spiral holiday album.

"For me, Kindness is probably the most intense listening experience I've had with Spiral. I remember listening to a rough cut of "The Man Who Never Left" late one evening after my wife had gone to bed. The room was completely dark and I came to a point in the song where Chris uses a very strange effect on his voice and whispers "There's only fear outside" over and over. It actually freaked me out. I love it when music works like that." -Aaron Frale, from the ProgArchives interview

"Your Kindness Let a Monster In" seems almost like some creature who willed itself into the Spiral world with ferocity. While the band were working on their epic "The Traveler" in the fall of 2011, they were detoured by this project. They made quick work of it in order to release it on Halloween, as the material was dark and appropriate, thus it became known as the Spiral holiday album. But then something strange happened. The Monster decided it wanted to be more than just a quick thought between "Capital" and "Traveler." It wanted the same love and attention that the RIP trilogy was getting. Like any good parents would do, Aaron and Chris returned their love and attention to the Monster, recording more material and re-recording existing parts. They re-released a new and final version in January 2012. While I never heard the previous version it was undoubtedly a good call to flesh out this work. It harkens back to the "Billy Jensen" album and is another real gem.

"Monster" succeeds so well at capturing the dark lyrical themes contained within. The music feels like it wants to withhold secrets, it gives you clues, but it always feels as if there is something hiding around the corner. It also feels constricting and confining, a monkey clinging to your back, pressuring you to keep your mouth shut if you want to remain alive. And yet it is Spiral in their most adventurous of spirits. While the first two RIP albums are very good they feel more structured and guitar-centric, more jam oriented. Monster has some of that, but like Jensen there is more textural variety, more surprises, more willingness to let the keyboard interrupt the jam for pure sound exploration. There is a great balance of light to heavy in both instruments and vocals. And there is superb flow to the album. It moves along like one sinister character shuffling down the alley, the five tracks all complimenting each other beautifully.

"Sticks and Stones" is fantastic, with forceful parts that build and dissolve into occasional sad melodic bits, especially great is the little guitar solo beginning around 5:50. Love those first chords and how sad they feel. "Jenny" has an elaborate beginning that sounds like Felicia's strings are back but I think this is a keyboard part. Completely ominous keys are joined by this repeating guitar motif that goes on and on. "Father" is the cool short track separating the four longer pieces, it cleanses the palate though doesn't lighten the mood. It features organ and this repetitive, doomy pattern which is very oppressive, then softened just a bit by piano. A fantastic moment! "The Man Who Never Left" captures the isolation and irrational fears of the agoraphobic character, using carefully crafted vocal treatments as mentioned above. Frightening and fascinating. While the comparisons to Jensen are understandable it must be acknowledged that Spiral have increased their sound palette and finesse with this particular venture. The keys, the heavy stoner guitar sound, the intense vocals, the soft interludes, these are the common Spiral ingredients and they are very effective tackling this difficult subject matter. I want to include the following description about the themes of the songs right from the band, as always the storytelling is very integral to the Spiral experience:

"I spent a lot of my childhood in a very small town. This album is my attempt to look back at the way the town worked from a more mature perspective. Everyone was very proud of their hospitality and friendliness, but it seemed like everyone knew some horrid secret about someone else. So and so's son shot himself out in the field (Sticks and Stones (The Suicide Song)) and so on. Also, when someone was strange or different they usually wanted to be left alone, which, of course, made everyone pay more attention to them. The Man Who Never Left is about an agoraphobic. Unfortunately, his fear of the outside world draws the outside world to him. All the local kids stare at him through his windows and ring his doorbell over and over. Jenny Hurts her Little Brother is about an unnatural relationship between a brother and sister living with their abusive father. And finally, when anything truly violent happens in a small town, it quickly passes into the stuff of legend (You Kindness Let a Monster In). I'm sure all of these things (and worse) happen in large cities, but in small towns every oddity, every strange taboo and act of violence is talked about over and over again until it becomes an oral tradition. I wanted to tell these stories like I heard them growing up, full of darkness and fear." -Chris Boat, from the PA interview

I feel no shame in being the resident Spiral fanboy. This is my kind of band, unique and with personality, and "Monster" is a real favorite. And again, another perfect album cover that captures the music.