WAR AND PEACE

The first album from this instrumental group based in Russia. They formed in 2008 and besides the usual guitars/drums/keyboards there is a lot of violin as well. The music here can generally be described as a mix of fusion and symph prog with some prog folk and heavy prog/prog metal influences. "Dilemma" is some kind of folky symph fusion. Things get interesting when the crunchier guitar and synth solo shows up. Overall flows really well between the different parts. "To Catch The Wind" has a sound that can be described as 'symphonic prog-folk metal'. They even get funky for a bit.

"James Pont" is a 16 1/2 minute epic and also the centerpiece of the album. Starts off heavy edged fusion. Different instruments trade solos at one point. There are parts that are very symphonic sounding with the violin standing out. In the middle gets very classical sounding with the piano and violin. Overall a well-done epic which moves smoothly among the different sections. "Dance Under The Bullets" is some upbeat funky fusion. "After The War" is another highlight. Sounds almost industrial at the beginning with the distorted bass and tom-tom pounding.

Settles into symphonic fusion which changes tempo. Gets close to prog metal in the middle. Ends in an almost noisy avant-garde way. In contrast to that ending, the beginning of last track "Satori" is very warm and atmospheric. A very melodic and almost mainstream track. Proceeds to get very jazzy before morphing into more symphonic rock. Interesting symph fusion in the middle. A bit of wordless vocals towards the end. In conclusion, a very good album. The playing and production is top notch. I particularly like the tone the bass has a lot of the time. My only major complaint would be consistency and tracklisting; some tracks are much stronger than others and the flow of the album can be up and down. I'll give this a 3.5 rounded up to 4 stars.