KEYHOLDER

Kaipa's music very old school symphonic prog/rock in it's form. Nothing revolutionized here, but still it is a very pleasant and interesting adventure to dig into any of their albums. It sounds in many ways like The Flower Kings and The Tanget and it is clearly to hear that one of their biggest 70's prog band influences is Yes. So if you are into some real old school dreamy adventure-like symphonic prog rock then give this band/album a spin.

This is imo their best effort from the new era.

Lifetime of a journey. With a nice and chaotic start we soon thereafter is introduced to some of these great melodies and grooves of this song. The mood is great and you instantly get the impression that you have been sucked into a fairy tale of some sort. The track consist of many great intrumental parts and soloes which are all well crafted and executed... these guys really know their ways around their intruments. The lyrics are also very dreamy and is full of references back to a time where the modern world did not exist. Lyrics is not the essential part of this band (for me at least), so I'm really not that much into them... all I can say is that they fit the music very well and certain words or lines helps you to imagine this special universe the music is creating.

A complex work of art. A track filled up with complex arrangements and fantastic dreamy melodies. It is not these aspects is never seen in prog rock before, they are just so well written and performed here. This is one of the tracks that features Aleena on vocals and se really does a great job. Normally I'm not really that fond of female lead vocals, but I think she does a terrific job and her voice really suits the music and the mood really well. This rather long track features both some great mellow parts plus some more technical parts... all your prog rock heart could desire!

The weed of all mankind. This track is a real rocker. It starts out mellow with a great lead by Roine followed by a dreamy vocal verse, but the chorus is really a rocker with heavy guitar and all. The rocking feel actually continues more or less throu the whole song. This is one of the more darker tracks of the album both musically and lyrically. The lyrics are about how the evil force is about to consume all the good things in this world, but the use of word is still in the context of the more fairy tale like as the rest of the album is.

Sonic Pearls. This track has this oriental theme going on. It is really moody and one of the mellow tracks of the album. Really nothing much else to say about this track other than it is great and if you like the oriental folky type of music then you would dig this one.

End of the rope. This track starts out with a good old 70's pop/rock feel. Really nice and pleasant to listen to and very well written. After the verse and chorus a great melody line comes... it changes from heavy to jazzy/symphonic and back again and it really works with both musical styles very well... it's a real kick ass section of the song. After that we have some more mellow and up tempo old school prog parts with soloes and stuff going on before it all return to a more straight vocal section. Again there is a lot of passages not describet in this track because it would take too long to write down and become too boring to read I guess. But overall musically it is a real killer track and very well written! The lyric is about war and how much it can destroy peoples lives.

Across the big uncertain. This is also one of the more mellow tracks on the album... nothing surprising here, but still it is a very cool and comfortable song. A nice vocal duet to start and finish withand a nice long guitar solo in between. The lyrics to this track is more possitive and have alot of the hippie feel that is normally associated with Roine (and he did help Hans type down the lyrics for this one).

Distant voices. Again a great classic-like prog song. Alot of great melodies, complex instrumental passages and amazing soloes. Again so much is going on that it is hard to pick a certain part, but if you like the traditional symphonic prog you will like this. It has it all both mellow and up tempo passages, beautiful melodies and virtouso instrumentation and lots of soloing. Very similar to a classic Flower Kings track if you ask me.

Otherwoldly brights. The last tarck of the album. Again the best way to describe it is just classic symphonic prog rock. Lots of proggy intrumental sections, mellow vocal sections and nice melodies all the way throu. On the lyrical side this is a return to the more dreamy adventures than the last couple of tracks. Again it accompanies the music very well. It all ends very epic with a classic Roine guitar solo... all good stuff!