HINTERLAND

In my apparent quest to judge every album by its cover, I was recently overcome with delight at the apparent coinciding of a tasteful and adroit album cover and equally precise opus ensconced within. The superlatively praised album in question is Wobbler's third album, Rites at Dawn. Being insufficiently sated by a single helping, I have naturally returned to the source for fulfillment. And, for lack of any better motivation, I've decided to begin at the beginning with Hinterland.

As a first album, Hinterlands is a statement about Wobbler. They clearly possess an acute talent and sophistication to match, but have not yet found their intent entirely. The album is constituted by three fairly unstructured epic length pieces which showcase the band's abilities as well as their influences. Rites at Dawn was a clear homage to Yes, but here the inspiration is from more diverse sources like Gentle Giant, King Crimson (especially on Rubato Industry), ELP, Hawkwind and at times bears noticable resemblance to their space rocking American contemporaries Astra (Whose debut this album precedes by 4 years, I'll note.). As with Rites at Dawn, the influences are evident, but not overriding. Wobbler possesses its own brand restrained intensity embellished with European folk, classical and a hint of earthy Norse myth.

Hinterland is an excellent introduction to the band, and is an excellent progressive and symphonic rock album in general. I think the band's talents only continue to develop with time and are ultimately better applied later on, but I'd be completely remiss if I urged you to take a pass on Hinterland. It is quite pleasing for its own reasons. Four out of five.