NEW METAL FROM OLD BOXES

From his first experimental electronic release, Jason Rubenstein has made a radical move into heavy progressive rock. The heaviness doesn't come from the guitars, but the keyboards. There are some guitars here, but it's not obvious if it's programmed, like a synthesizer of if it's a real guitar. Nonetheless, it's the keyboards that are the main instrument. And they are played like a hammer hitting the dark note with repetitive notes that is a recurrent theme throughout the album. While this pattern is heard, there's another keyboards part that is playing at the same time with more symphonic melodies. The music is in the atmosphere of the dramatic style of Ars Nova and on some specific songs, like "The Snowflake Defines the Weather" and "Frankenstein on the Red line", in the style of Keith Emerson of ELP. The general dark mood of the music left some space sometimes to lighter jazz part with piano. The song "Unspeakable Highways" has that horror movie atmosphere that contains one of the most interesting grooves on the album. "A Burden of Secrets" is another standout track that has some lighter passages that I mentioned earlier. But the dark style being a recurrent them is still present. This is instrumental music that sounds like some soundtrack of your nightmare with no ballads, but heavy stuff that combines elements of the old school of progressive rock to some contemporary music of today. The album closes with no surprise here with a tasteful and faithful rendition of "The Barbarian" of ELP.