ARCANE

ARCANE would break up after the mammoth "Known/Learned" where it was like albums from two different bands. A different bass player too on each side. And that second disc is full of ballads. Not my thing, and for whatever reason the band had had enough and vocalist Jim Grey would turn his complete focus now to CALIGULA'S HORSE. I prefer ARCANE. And my expectations here were low despite the very high ratings this 2009 release gets. I found out fairly quickly(2 spins in) that this record was on another level when compared to anything else by this band or the related band CALIGULA'S HORSE.

I just feel that this album is their sweet spot as it were. This clearly was the record fans loved out of the three they released. A surprisingly abundance of keyboards, even over the guitar. We get two guest female singers who add a lot, changing the flavour on two tracks. I like how they inserted these short "Silent Year" pieces(three of them) throughout this record. Besides these three short pieces we get a couple of long ones at 12 and 13 minutes respectively. There are four tracks that stood out for me so lets look at them.

First though the song "Glimpse" is a strange way to start the album as it opens with the sounds of a desperate man talking. He mentions May 26 a couple of times, and we also have a song called "May 26". The first song to really grab me was track three called "The Malice". The music and vocals get pretty intense but we get a 2 minute calm as well. "Secret" is another top four and this might be my favourite song for the guitar. Lots of piano too. The sounds of kids at recess can be heard before 6 minutes before a child sings "la la la" over and over, then it turns heavy. The atmosphere(synths) is incredible. The sound of children playing ends it.

Another top four is the next track "Fading", and at almost 12 minutes this is a ride. My final top four is the third and final interlude track called "The Third Final Year" with guest female vocals and plenty of atmosphere. May 26 is mentioned again. If you are a CALIGULA'S HORSE fan you should check this record out, this is my favourite Jim Grey vocal performance as well. Everything seems to work on this one, while with both of these bands I have had my issues with their other records. A solid 4 stars and a very enjoyable concept album.

1. "Glimpse (3:36) sounds like an even more theatric version of TOOL and Maynard James Keenan. A little over the top, but a great start to a virtually seemless story exposition. (9.5/10)

2. "The Seer" (5:30) heavy prog carrying over the melodies from the opening song. Having been a long fan of fellow Aussies KARNIVOOL, I feel there are many similarities here to that later band. But vocalist Jim Grey is far more theatric and risk-taking than Ian Kenny--is more on a par with THAT JOE PAYNE--and may be even more talented than the Karnivool lead singer. The music is good, with lots of proggy time, theme, and stylistic variations, and the instrumental talents of the band members are very good, but there is something in the sound rendering that make the tracks seem a bit too clean, too separate, and too "constricted." But what a talent is this Jim Grey! (8.75/10)

3. "The Malice (7:21) Drums, bass, and keys shine the most for me on this heavy, at-time-brooding and dramatic number. Nice lead guitar and Hammond interchanges in the fourth minute, with the guitar sound and style beginning to sound more like AL DI MEOLA the further we get into the song. Great song! Jim Grey's That Joe Payne- like performance in the second half is worthy of all the superlatives you can come up with. (14/15)

4. "The First Silent Year" (1:19) cool effected organ with effected lead guitar soloing soul-fully over the top. (4.25/5)

5. "Secret" (7:18) "glockenspiel" takes up the main melody from the previous ditty before bursting into a oddly soft yet dynamic TOOL-like performance song. Jim Grey: Wow! A vocal performance for the ages. Intersting to hear Hammond soloing "metal"style within those power chords and then followed and teamed by searing electric guitar runs. Great ORPHANED LAND sound in the fifth and sixth minutes. Then a small children vocalising the main melody a cappella (!) before the band joins in! (13.75/15)

6. "Fading" (11:58) sensitive strumming around the electric guitar fretboard while Jim Grey sings in his most delicate upper register voice. So cool! Band with piano joins in to provide rolling, relaxing background for continued beautiful singing. At 3:30 the power chords begin to amp up the sound palette until the walls are fully built early into the fifth minute. Wow! I am so impressed by this band's capacity to support melody with its multi-varied musical textures! A wonderful song that somehow doesn't ever rise to the heights of its initial promise.(22.5/25)

7. "The Second Silent Year" (1:48) solo piano with a heart-felt Billy Joel feel to it. Nice exploration of other themes/motifs from the album. (4.5/5)

8. "May 26" (3:17) muted, scratchy guitar, bass, and drums weave a perfect triad of sequences while piano's upper register tinkles away as if in its own universe and Maynard Jim Grey sings a breathy vocal somewhere in the middle. Another surprisingly unique, original, and cool take on the heavy prog/prog metal sound palette. (9.25/10)

9. "The Third Silent Year" (2:29) (not present on my digital copy from Bandcamp of the album.)

10. "Asylum: Acolyte Zero" (13:04) opens with full-on walls of sound metal, once again conveying those Middle Eastern melodic sensibilities. Even when it moves into the rapid fire/machine gun guitar, bass, and drum playing in the second minute, it's still ORPHANED LAND/YOSSI SASSI I hear--even more pronounced int the stepped down 'scapes of the third and fourth minutes. (22/25)

11. "Whisper" (1:45) the bookend finish to a great story rendering. Does a great job reminding us of the talents of this singer, Jim Grey. (4.5/5)

Total time: 59:25

A-/five stars; a minor masterpiece of wonderfully fresh-sounding heavy prog, one of my favorite prog-on-the-heavy- side albums of the Naughties and, in my opinion, an essential listening experience for any prog lover.

I'll focus therefore on the first disc called "Known". "Promise (Part 2)" hits the ground running until it calms right down when the laid back vocals arrive. Contrasts will continue between the uptempo and relaxed sections. "Unturning" has a nice guitar intro, very IRON MAIDEN-like. Vocals join in along with drums as the intricate guitar lines continue. Riffs and heaviness 2 minutes in as the tempo and mood changes continue. "Instinct" is different with the abundance of piano as the heaviness comes and goes. I really like the heaviness with synths before 4 1/2 minutes. "Womb(In Memoriam)" is a short vocal track.

"Selfsame" sounds really good when it kicks into gear around 1 1/2 minutes, it's quite emotional. Heavy guitar 4 minutes in as it becomes all instrumental. Great section! Vocals are back 5 1/2 minutes in. "Holding Atropos" is mellow with reserved vocals and I love the picked guitar 2 minutes in. It's an okay track overall. "Keeping Stone: Sound On Fire" sounds really good when it kicks in hard after a minute. A silent calm 6 minutes in as sparse sounds can be faintly heard. It's not long before they are kicking ass once again. "Learned" is the over 23 minute closer of disc one. It starts off with faint vocals and some atmosphere as it builds. Vocals after 3 minutes and check out the guitar a minute later. Nice. I like the vocals 6 1/2 minutes in. It settles with Spanish sounding guitar 11 minutes in. This lasts for over 1 1/2 minutes then it kicks back in. The vocals will come and go as themes are repeated. Great track.

I can hear why some people are going gaga over this with the excellent vocals and lights out instrumental work, but I can't go higher than 3 stars when evaluating this recording as a whole.

Well I will tell you what they did: They delivered the perfect double album! This is their magnum opus. They took all their influences, evolved their sound and produced A LOT of music! Regarding inspiration you can call this an overachievement. 130 minutes but it is not only a matter of quantity. We are talking of top quality music and to label it, it is experimental prog alternative. From Toolism to Heavy Prog but with a coherent distinctive sound. A reminder that this genre of prog still has juice. A steady improvement of how their previous work sounds, especially in the production.

The 2 jawdropping things are voice and drums. It is beyond words the way the vocal lines are floating above music, perfectly delivered, he does a fantastic work. Now about the drummer on steroids he is in a zone especially in the 1st heavier CD. I don't like "names dropping" but he reminds me of the drumming in last years Karnivool album. Something marvellous is happenind down under...

Add to all this a storm of riffs and a layer of haunting keys and you get a picture of the 1st CD. To top this (yes it is possible) they close the 1st part with an epic 23 track that has everything a prog track needs.

Enough said about the 1st one, you move to the second CD and you get a mellow side, almost unplugged and (also almost) majore. From darkness comes the light. The melodies written here will stuck in your brain, a lot of hooks and this is a success since I remind you this is not commercial music (actually it is a success of crowdfunding). Top moment in my opinion is Nightingale's Weave, indredible build up and crescendo.

The duality of this double release is the final element of perfection. Black and White, it is here to fill your ears and fulfill your desire of prog music. An early candidate of album of the year, the comparison with all the other releases will be frightening. Arcane managed to pull through the obstacles of a double release and offered something really incredible! 5 stars!

Australian prog will soon rule the world. I'm convinced of this. There are so many wonderful progressive bands coming out of Australia right now, but, for my money, Arcane is the greatest of all. Arcane crowdfunded this new album "Known/Learned", and, what an album it is!! As you may have suspected, "Known/Learned" is a double album of epic proportions, complete with a darkness/light theme, a heavy disc (Known) and a softer one (Learned), and emotional lyrics. Indeed, the insights explored lyrically in this album are quite heavy and deep. So, this being their third album, how does Arcane fare? Can they really pull off an album in excess of 130 minutes?

The answer is a definitive "yes". I'm incredibly impressed with the grace, maturity, and compositional tightness with which this massive album was created. The band is: Jim Grey on vocals, Michael Gagen on guitars, Matt Martin on keyboards, and Blake Coulson on drums. Due to losing their bassist, the band recruited the bassists from Dead Letter Opener and Ne Obliviscaris to record the bass lines. Anyways, these musicians are clearly talented on a high level. Michael's guitars are stuttering brilliance, and the rhythm sections on both albums are massive successes, especially Blake's mad drumming. Jim's vocals, however, are on a level of their own. This guy has the range, the tone, and the lungs to out-sing just about anyone. From quiet, beauteous moments to blaring monuments, Jim Grey makes this double album work. Need convincing? Listen to "Womb".

Arcane has a rather distinctive sound that carries on in this double album. On "Known", soaring melodies crash straight into hefty riffs and incredible polyrhythmic instrumentals with results that aren't quite metal, but could certainly be called that. "Known" is a joy from start to finish, with an opening track that grabs your attention, "Promise [Part 2]". In fact, when my wife and I heard it for the first time, we looked at each other in jawdropping amazement. "Known" starts out, then, with definitive, perfect Arcane---exactly what we were hoping. The album continues on with solid tracks, including the amniotic silence of "Womb" and the greatness of the 20+ minute epic "Learned". In fact, the latter has one of the best closing five minutes that I've heard in some time. Catchy, impressive on a technical level, and always sublime, "Known" is near to a masterpiece. If I have any complaints, it is that the album may drag a bit in some of the longer tracks, but that is nitpicking at best.

"Learned" is a much different album. Dropping the technical feats of the previous album, "Learned" explores a more human, delicate side to the band. In fact, it's much more relatable and personal, as the band isn't hiding behind a wall of sound, so to speak. The album begins strongly with "Hunter, Heart & Home", featuring a consistent and addictive melody. Other strong tracks include "Nightingale's Weave", which loops and spins around your mind precariously; and "Impatience and Slow Poison", which has that slow building effect that can be so incredible. "Learned" is a strong album by itself, and it honestly doesn't need "Known" at all.

Had Arcane given me either "Known" OR "Learned" for my hard-earned cash, I would have been immensely satisfied. As it is, the band has given me two incredible albums that will certainly top their previous albums in my mind. It isn't often that one can find a band with such finesse and maturity in playing combined with top-notch vocals and deep lyrics. Arcane really is the full package, and I hope that the inspiration keeps flowing freely.

When this album was announced, during Arcane's crowd-funding campaign, I was a bit skeptical of its quality. For starters, both the previous Arcane records could have been cut shorter, and as a general rule in prog, the more restrained it is, the less it tends to piss about shredding and key mashing. So Arcane announcing a double album, light/dark, yin/yang themed, with one being long and heavy and epic and the other being soft and sweet, both containing themes from each other and crossing over lyrically. On the one hand, that's nearly two hours of music, and for sure will end up dry as hell and certain to dissolve into at least a dozen dick waving sessions. But on the other, that concept is absolutely awesome.

But I think the success of Known/Learned is almost entirely down to the fact that this is not a double album. This is two completely separate albums, and should be treated as such. Sure, they have overlapping themes and titles and the digipak has this cool ying/yang thing going in the art (bonus shoutout to whoever the printing company is - this is one of the best looking (and feeling) CDs I own), but in essence these albums are their own entities with their own themes and styles and they should be treated as two separate sides of a whole, Deliverance/Damnation style. And I have done this in my listening, never playing both disks too close to each other. And because of that I've split this review up into discussions on both records individually, with a conclusion talking about the double album as a whole.

Side A: Known

For the first three listens of this album I only played Known, and didn't touch Learned. I thought it would be cool to form an opinion on one, then go into the other with some familiarity and expectation. And after those three listens I remember saying 'if this was the only album Arcane released right now, I would already have enough great things to say about it'. Essentially, this album is the follow-up to Chronicles of the Waking Dream, and Learned is just an album-long extra.

Despite the fact that I was one of the crowd-funders for this album and paid for it months before hearing it, I was never really sold on it being great, I really just wanted to support the band. Ashes was a solid album plagued by some poor production and a bit of over-wanking, and even though Chronicles of the Waking Dream did fix those parts for the most part, I would never call myself a big fan of this band, the only thing that really impressed me about that record being Jim Grey's voice. While musically it had good moments, it really failed to grip me beyond 'decent'. Although I could hear them becoming a fantastic band on that record, I absolutely did not expect them to do it, do it brilliantly, and do it with two albums at once.

This album is pretty much everything Chronicles of the Waking Dream was trying to be. The melodies and riffs are stronger, the production is fantastic, the songs don't drag on (mostly), and every single performance is greatly improved. On this album Arcane play a style somewhere in the midst of progressive rock and metal, but keep a distinctly emotional take on it, in the same way a group like Riverside do, but without the melodrama (and that bloody organ). It goes from huge riffs and anthemic choruses to the near-silent beauty of 'Womb', but never loses track of its overall aim, and never spends too long doing one thing.

In terms of negative sides, there's not much that's wrong with Known per se, it just could be a bit better if it absolutely needed to. As with any progressive metal album, there is an affinity to playing a bit more than you need to in solos, and while this does keep itself mostly within reasonable bounds with relatively sensible keyboard patches (there's one in 'Instinct' that sucks though) and solo counts, particularly during the 23-minute closing track it does push a bit past my wankery limit. I really only have one actual problem with this album though, the rest are just nitpick, and that problem is the way that the best song on this album shoots itself in the foot halfway through to become' not the best song on this album.

The first half of 'Selfsame', especially coming out of the solemn and beautifully reverbed 'Womb', is by far the best thing I have heard from this band, and one of the best things I have heard in a long while. 'Womb' sets such a beautiful scene, Grey's voice haunting like he's singing in an enormous cathedral, and when that oh-so-subtle guitar comes in to open 'Selfsame' you know it's going to be gold. The lead melody of this song, whether it's backed by nothing but an acoustic guitar and ambience like its first rendition, or backed by a massive wall of keyboard choirs and guitars like its second and third, is one of the most spinechilling things I have ever heard. It's simultaneously depressing and uplifting, going from solemn to anthemic in the space of a minute.

And then we get the bridge. Sigh. Why is it that the first time (and pretty much only time) Arcane decide to dissolve into some Haken-tier key-mashing and shredding on this album is during the best and most emotional song? Yeah sure, those blast beats are pretty cool and are good for a laugh, but I was crying 35 seconds ago, I don't want a bloody shredfest, I want feelings. But at least it isn't too long before the song gets back to absolutely glorious (Jim's 'give me a voice to be heard' line is an absolutely flawless reintroduction).

To me, this album represents what I think 'standard progressive metal' will sound like for the next few years. Leprous represent the slightly avant-garde and out-there side, Ne Obliviscaris represent the extreme metal side (although their new album isn't exactly consolidating their position), and I feel Arcane, with this album have made an album that is quite simply 'transparent progressive metal'. This album has enough links to classic bands like Dream Theater and Fates Warning in the structuring and riffs to keep purists impressed, but replaces the overwhelming cheese and corniness of those bands with sincere and quite beautiful melody and emotion. If they can keep this up I honestly believe these guys can overtake current poster-boys Haken, whose dorkiness and over-soloing will no doubt fall short to the spinechilling emotion that Arcane pack behind this album.

The overall sound of this album, with a few brief exceptions that I've touched on, corrects everything that critics have against progressive metal over the years. The guitar tones are sensible and well-produced, the vocalist isn't a ball-breaking power metal dude, the compositions focus on emotion and sincerity over technicality and show, and the band knows that it doesn't have to be metal all the time (because despite all I've said about this, only about 50% of this disk is actually 'metal'). I can see Known becoming a modern classic simply because of its style. Compositionally it's impressive but not absolutely brilliant, but in combination with the wonderfully fresh-yet-familiar sound that Arcane have built, makes it into something bigger.

Side B: Learned

As I said earlier, if you treat Known as the 'album', Learned is like an extra-good bonus disk, with Arcane stripping away the metal (but not all of the prog) to make an album of relatively soft songs in the vein of a band like Anathema. But don't get me wrong - I don't mean bonus as in 'a bunch of average cuts from the recording session', I mean bonus as in 'Known is easily enough to be a full album and catapult these guys right into the middle of upcoming prog royalty and this is just a ridiculous victory lap'. If this was released as a side project or from a completely separate band then it would probably also be enough to catapult them into prog royalty, just in a different way.

Although it does definitely feel like an annex, the thing that impresses me the most about this disk is that these songs aren't just soft acoustic tracks, they have flow and structure and even some heavy parts like any prog album, there's just a bit more focus on softer instrumentals. The opening two tracks both could be big heavy Arcane tracks with a few more instruments, but they instead strip it down to let Jim Grey's voice shine through. I love the way these songs build, too, because they're not afraid to ramp up the intensity near the ends, despite this being 'the soft album'. The softer sound also gives the instrumentalists a lot more room to be subtle and mood- building. Throughout the first few minutes 'Hunter, Heart & Home', the piano, drums and bass can all be heard adding their own little touches to the relatively consistent acoustic guitar part. I especially love the little piano melodies that are added into these tracks, in a very post-rock esque way, putting just enough into it to add complexity, but not to overwhelm the main parts.

And that's not the only thing that is very post-rock influenced on this album - many of these songs reach distinct crescendos, featuring longer parts repeating the same chord progressions, adding little parts in as they keep going forward. There are no screeching tremolo-picked crescendocore peaks on this album, but the way the instruments, particularly the drums rise and fall with everything without ever getting heavy is masterful, reminding me the most of New Zealand band Mice on Stilts' longer songs, although comparisons to the softer parts of groups like Anathema are also warranted.

But the real star of this disk is Jim Grey himself, and I honestly feel like the idea behind this album could have been spawned by the band wanting to write material specifically for his nearly angelic soft vocals. 'Little Burden' is one in particular that sounds very much written for him, with his reverbed falsetto of the first few minutes being utterly enchanting. The way they're produced is wonderful too, with tons of reverb and atmosphere reminds me so much of the best countertenors back when I was in the choir. The longest song here, 'Nightingale's Weave' is easily the strongest track, almost entirely because of Jim's voice and the melodies he pulls (that recurring one is absolutely beautiful), but the amazing build from the band is also stellar, even if the song is a touch long.

Honestly, in a similar manner to Known (but for different reasons), the only thing that pulls this down is its length. The only track that truly justifies its length is the opening track, even 'Little Burden' could be cut down - the song's crescendo comes after a bit too long I feel, and when it comes it feels a bit short compared to the build. The midsection of the album, before 'Nightingale's Weave', does lose a bit of momentum in my opinion, with 'Impatience and Slow Poison' outstaying its welcome a bit much, for a song that is based on an already-used motif from the first disk, and 'Known' being an uber-soft track amongst already soft tracks just sort of floats by. That technique worked on the first disk with 'Womb' because all the other songs were heavy. Here, it just becomes an unnecessary interlude in an album filled with interludes. Doesn't stop it from being a really nice acoustic track though.

In the end I guess it's the soft nature of this album that makes it a bit homogenous - all these songs are great, they just need one of the more intense tracks to break it up. Either way, Learned is still a strong disk of subtle beauty, and while next to the first disk it does get dwarfed, for what it is, it's very good.

Conclusion

I think I went a bit overboard in the praise from my closing paragraphs on Known, because I've said pretty much everything I need to say here already. Known alone is a fantastic example of the future of progressive metal, and with the added depth that Learned brings, I think I might have a case of 'oh [&*!#] I found my album of the year in January'. But together, the biggest praise I can give this album is that it is pretty much the perfect double album. Last year saw another Australian double album, Chapter & Verse, finding both of its disks in my top 10 for album of the year, but that album had serious problems of diversity within its 90- minute runtime, whereas this is exactly what a double album should be, two albums that compliment each other perfectly, can stand on their own, sound completely distinct and yet aren't all homogenous. Known isn't all metal all the time and Learned isn't all soft acoustic stuff all the time, which is what makes them work so beautifully. That, in combination with the fact that these guys can also write pretty great songs as well makes this not only the best modern progressive double album I have heard, but possibly the greatest double album I have heard, ever.

I feel I'm being way too positive. I'm just in a good mood today. Known/Learned may not be a flawless album, but what really is? There's room for improvement on the next album for sure, but for what this is, this is pretty stunning. Progressive music, we have a new leader.

Known - 8.9 Learned - 8.3

Originally written for my Facebook page/blog: www.facebook.com/neoprogisbestprog

This is a concept album with a narrative that is more implied than outwardly stated. As such there's a wonderful element of mystery to what's taking place. The ideas are carried by the music in the form of moods and emotions as much as by the lyrics and the snippets of spoken word that appear throughout the album.

Production is also amazingly good. Right from the opening track where ominous drums pound across the frantic narration of the album's protagonist, it's evident that a lot of care has gone into crafting this soundscape. For the next hour there is barely a moment of silence as one track blends seamlessly into the next. This is definitely one of those albums best devoured in one sitting.

There's some fine musicianship involved from all members of the band, with stellar vocals from Jim Grey and the guitar of Michael Gagen a standout for me. Gagen's tone on this album is absolutely killer, and he handles the differing styles of pensive melodies, metal riffing and shredding solos with great aptitude.

Aside from the atmospherics and some great melodies, there's plenty of time signature shifts throughout the album to keep things interesting. The impressive thing is that these don't feel forced at all. In most cases there's a very natural flow, all the while maintaining that feeling that you never know which direction the song is going to take next.

Arcane are now working on the follow up to "Waking Dream" with an ambitious double album. Now normally double albums make me nervous. Bands who attempt them often have the best intentions, but inadequate inspiration to pull off such an undertaking. Let's face it, it's hard enough to make one quality album, let alone two at once. But with Arcane, I have no doubts that they'll do it, so much so that I happily chipped in for their kickstarter a couple of months ago. It's very much a case of "watch this space" and I'm sure great things are in store.