IN RABBITS & CORNERS

The ever increasing track lengths and expanding symphonic and neo influences be damned, I still think of the WOOD DEMONS as a high decibel folk rock group in the tradition of HORSLIPS or RUNRIG, but what did they expect with a name like that? Full disclosure, there's as much GENESIS, CARAVAN and FM here as well. This is their first post pandemic release, and it piles epic upon epic - 5 in total - into our streaming medium of choice.

With authorship apportioned equitably among the keyboardist (listen to the vintage organs), guitarist and bassist, and similarly democratic arrangements that wisely favor the violinist (or fiddler as dictates your preference), the oddly titled "In Rabbits and Corners" is by far the group's most cohesive and professional outing to date. It achieves this with no sacrifice in passion but rather a 52 minute exercise in welcoming the next 30 seconds with tongue hanging out and tail wagging, and the next, and the next, in a setting where disappointment is an endangered emotion. Yet this isn't prog by the numbers at all, even as you will feel quite comfortable drawing insufficient comparisons to artists from across the diaspora, many more than the names I tossed out above.

In a just world, the WOOD DEMONS would propagate in playlists much like lagomorphs in meadows, but let's not fuss over popularity imagined, hoped for, or realized. The band recently played at an annual festival dedicated to NEIL PEART and medical research, so they are surrounding themselves with the right folk...folk or not. 4.5 stars.