RITES AT DAWN

I first heard of Wobbler around the end of 2020 thanks to Pete Pardo's amazing YT Chanel S.O.T. when their latest studio album Dwellers of the Deep was being reviewed and discussed. I looked up for it, listened to it and was immediately hooked. But digging into their catalog I came across their third studio Album Rites at Dawn and everything I already felt for the band and their music triplicated. I'm not a musical genius or anything and there's an overwhelming amount of classic music still unknown to my ears to call myself a critic? I just review for fun and to share what I think is good music and deserves public awareness? so I apologize in advance if my description of their sound si not accurate, bu here it goes? With a very distinctive Scandinavian sound, this wonderful Norwegian band sounds to me like Jethro Tull/Genesis in steroids, with YES-like vocals and Crimson-style harmonies resulting in just beautifulness and musical perfection. Lucid opens the album with a keyboard created ambient that rapidly immerses the listener into the music, short and straight forward building a bridge to the uptempo madness that Lá Bealtaine brings, with a very tight structure that somehow resembles the Close to the Edge atmosphere but in their own way, exceptionally executed guitar layers accompanying the masterful work of Lars Fredrik Frøislie who is, at least to my ears, an immensely talented musician "Old graces, yours the answers I seek. Oh, sisters, tell me, Oh, witches, thrown into the stream, Oh, sisters, hear me. Shapeshifters, coloured fish in my dream. Oh, sisters, lead me. Turn the day & lights. Whilst crossing through the tide" is just an example of the profound and magical lyrical content that the listener will encounter here.

In Orbit starts with a nice acoustic guitar passage that with help of the angelical vocal harmonies builds up into electric guitar and keyboard licks tandem before returning to a mellow vocal passage and back up again to symphonic progressive galore, 12 plus minutes of genius! And lets not forget to mention the rhythmic section which is simply outstanding and super tight! This Past Presence almost seems to bring the same formula as its predecesor with the acoustic intro, although flutes are finally brought to the table, but its really not the case, this piece is anthemic form the beginning, reminding me a little of Anekdoten at moments maybe because of the galactic and unearthly keyboard work which again its just magnificent throughout the whole album, a shorter song but not less memorable. Another short one (to their standards at least) A Faerie's Play plays more like a hit single, if that's something that can be considered done by such a band in such a genre, with a very distinguished sometimes Iimmi-Like guitar work that preciously entangles with the rest of the instruments which in this specific song are letting the six string showcase the most. And then The River, my favorite song from the album (maybe the most Tullish one), the one that made me put headphones on and dismembered the musical experience, simply perfection. All the elements previously mentioned are present and definitely upgraded, like if they wanted to bring everything to the table? acoustic, electric, fast and furious, slow and melodic, like an ode to Earth and nature and its importance in their synergy with humans "?You run wild and far, and by your banks we may find rest at last, our common life is all there is, your soul equals our reflections, constantly you drift past us. With us, beneath us, upstream, downstream?" impossible not to fall in love with its melodies and lyrics, energetically bright and brilliant, beautiful. Lucid Dreams closes the cycle returning all eras to the starting sonic ambience from the opening track but with the proper feel of a masterpiece fading, operatic, classical and magical. The End!