SODOM AND GOMORRAH

It seems that long-time band leader Albert Khalmurzaev is finally getting his name vaulted to the top of the marquee: "Music by Albert Khalmurzaev." What is most interesting to me is that this is the most melodic music I've heard from this band (I'm a proud owner and lover of 2008's Overlook, 2010's Seventh Story, and 2011's Quartus Artifactus). Whereas all of their previous work has breathtaking musicianship and highly interesting and unusual song constructs, this one plays and feels like something quite theatric--as if meant to accompany a film or stage production. Of course, it makes sense that this work should be theatric as it is a conceptual music drama of the famous Biblical story of Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah. Powerful and very 'visual', this music 'tells' a story very powerfully, very strongly, with great ability to suck in and carry the listener along through its 53 minutes without losing his/her attention. The Dick Dale-like "Folly or Fob" teases the listener with vocal samples--making one realize that there are, in fact, no vocals on From.UZ albums--something I, personally, would love to see them attempt to change in the future. Aside from this one flaw--a flaw that is very seldom allowed to stay in one's mind for very long so mesmerizing and pleasing are the instrumental performances and melodic hooks and twists, respectively--this is a highly engaging album of nd I don't know what happened with the band from 2011 to now, but the band has definitely made that final leap from what I considered a band of incredible musicians stuck in some on-the-verge music to a band of maturely restrained musicians performing the amazing compositions of an amazingly gifted visionary and composer. Congratulations From.UZ: This is the breakout album I've always been convinced that you were capable of and for which I've been waiting since I first heard Overlook five years ago.

Favorite songs: the incredibly powerful, "The Blindness, Wife's Prayer" (5:07) (10/10); the awesomely mood-setting opener, "Intro" (3:12) (10/10); the gorgeous yet eerily tense, "Prologue (3:24) (9/10); the surprisingly electro-poppy (like ABC or The Blow Monkeys), "City" (2:06) (9/10); the AETHER-like, "Lot" (4:54) (9/10); the appropriately busy and theatric, "The Orgy" (4:17) (8/10); the mesmerizing trip-hoppy, "Black Feast II" (3:42) (8/10); the appropriately dramatic, "The Escape" (2:04) (8/10), and; the finale, "To The Flames" (3:41) (8/10).

This is a 4.5 star album that I'm rating up for the fact that it's melodies stay with me after I'm done listening and for the fact that it gets better with each listen. Bravo, UZ! Bravo, Al K! Another addition to the pantheon of great albums from 2013!