SPIRITECH

If you think that a prog band should have at least one member dressed in a long cape, and/or feature a keyboard player going tweedeledoo on his organ, or should be all about album side long tracks with lots of guitar solos and/or weird mathematics in the time signature area, then you can stop reading this review right away and start doing more interesting things like preparing a meal for your beloved. If however, your prog rock can be a no-nonsense metal attack from outer space, embedding influences from many musical dark forces, you better bare with me as Alchemist might be just the band for you!

Ok, now that we have the non believers out of the way, let's get to the point. After two inconspicuous death metal albums, Alchemist took a drastic turn towards a more diverse musical idiom and delivered their most varied, most progressive and best album to date. On Spiritech they play a brutal, intense but intelligent take on space metal. The music is highly eclectic and can be traced back to many sources with a good balance between atmosphere, melody and power.

First of all Voivod comes to mind, somewhere between the scourging fury of Dimension Hatross and their Floyd covers Astronomy Domine and Nile Song That leads to a second obvious influence: Pink Floyd from the 60's. The melodies are very psychedelic and eastern tinged, complete with tribal drumming and even featuring a chilling rendition of the Careful With That Axe Eugene scream by their excellent vocalist.

Talking about the vocalist, he's quite a versatile chap, next to the mentioned reproduction of Eugene, he varies between a low register clean voice, a hoarse 90's style Killing Joke bellowing and coarse but soulful metal grunts in the vein of Entombed (or Motorhead if the Entombed reference would scare you). Of course, the first time you will miss these subtle differences but repeated listens reveal his range!

Now, Killing Joke you say? What kind of prog is that? None at all of course. As I mentioned somewhere before, the band takes influences from many sources: metal obviously, psychedelic/space/prog or whatever you name it, ethnic influences and also new wave. Especially the first generation gothic bands that used haunted atmospheres and hypnotizing tribal drumming, like Bauhaus, Killing Joke and Siouxsie are in the melting point.

I've been longwinded enough so I will abstain from track by track reviewing. They are all excellent anyway. Instead I have got one more argument to make. Why 5 stars? Well to start with, you must have guessed I deem this band very high. Their unique approach to space rock combined with their energy and song skills makes them one of my favourite bands of the millennium era years. All of their albums from Spiritech onwards are 4 stars. This one gets one on top because it is their best. A most diverse release with a prominent prog dose.

A sad note to conclude: This album is not available for sale anymore! So why did I bother you for so long? Well you can find most of the songs back on a compilation album called 'Embryonics 90-98'. I'll be delighted though if it sees a full re-release but I'm afraid it may be not commercial enough for that. Thanks for you patient indulgence and give them a shot!

"Spiritech" is the 3rd full-length studio album by Australian extreme metal act Alchemist. The album was released through Thrust/Shock Records in June 1997. The band released a promotional music video for the track "Road to Ubar". "Spiritech" is generally a critically acclaimed release...

...and it´s obvious why that is, when listening to the album. Both "Jar of Kingdom (1993)" and especially "Lunasphere (1995)" were promising album releases, but Alchemist takes their music to a whole new level on "Spiritech". Stylistically the music is quite the eclectic mix of musical styles like death/thrash metal, progressive/psychadelic rock and middle eastern influences. There are even a few nods toward Australian aboriginal music on the album. It´s a metalized version of Killing Joke I´m mostly thinking about when listening to "Spiritech" though, which should not be perceived as a criticism of the band´s writing style, but just a way to explain how the music sounds. There is generally a bleak atmosphere on the album but also a more aggressive edge and there are sections on the album where the band really unleash their anger in a convincing manner.

This is dynamic music and however raw some parts of the music are there is always a mellow section or some other adventurous/psychadelic surprise lurking around the corner. Best examplified in longer tracks like "Chinese Whispers" and "Figments", which bookend the album (and which are both around 10 minutes long), but also in the more regular length tracks. The tracks are generally intriguing but not overtly complex in structure.

The musicianship is on a high level. The two guitars seldom play the same notes. Instead they compliment each other which provides the music with great depth and richness in detail. The strong and adventurous rhythm section is also a great asset to the band´s sound. The vocals by Adam Agius (vocals, guitar, keyboards) are raw and delivered with passion and conviction. The musicianship was also great on the two predecessors, but the sound productions on those two albums let them down. Thankfully that´s not the case with "Spiritech", which features a professional and powerful sound production. All in all it´s actually quite a great release and it´s like Alchemist really came into their own on this album. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.