SEVENTH STORY

From.uz's 2010 release, Seventh Story, is a long and difficult but ultimately rewarding album. It is nearly all instrumental, with the electic guitar clearly being the lead instrument. There are very few vocals (the most notable of which take place in the tracks "Parallels" and "Taken"). It also features many non-musical segments that seem like overheard snippets of conversation, all centering around poetry written by the characters (including, at the beginning of Desert Circle and in Perfect Love, a guy who is very difficult for me to understand). The album is seven tracks but they all transition into each other, often using the aforementioned conversation snippets as a tool to do so.

As mentioned, this album is long, and three of the songs surpass the fifteen minute mark. Of these tracks, I find Parallels to be the strongest - partially because of the vocals (they are sung with real convincing emotion that really appeals to me). Taken has a completely different approach to its vocals, using computer-distorted voices in a way that reminds me of a band that I'm sure Fromuz (and you, the reader) have not likely heard of - Swimfail, a band that was the brainchild of a friend of mine.

The strength of this album, to me, is that it never really gets boring. Although it is guitar lead for the most part, it has a lot of varying guitar sounds - including a spanish-sounding bit near the end of Desert Circle with some enthusiastic "Hey Hey!"s interspersed for good measure. Overall, this album has enough variety and interesting moments to keep one happy over many listens, and not bore them before it ends.