LOOK TO WINDWARD

From the Ashes of Tragedy

Andrew McCully, London-based multi-instrumentalist/vocalist, continues his LOOK TO WINDWARD studio project with an emotional tour de force, Verlossen.

"Verlossen"- to rescue, redeem, save.

Broken Hearts

Who doesn't need some rescuing, some redemption? Who among us hasn't had a broken heart? Where can we turn?

In McCully's case- heartrending, melodic, complex music-making.

Redemption

In a sense this is a tune, redeemed- that is, rebuilt, resurrected from its beginnings in McCully's previous band MICROFICTION. Then reworked, redone; that is, saved.

How To Heal?

Here, working with chums Benjamin Morley and Jonathan Sawyer- shared history, shared music,- McCully addresses the tragedy within his bosom ("What could be more catastrophic?") and seeks to exorcise the darkness within him, those he loves.

The Music

Starting with an ominous, aching held lower-register note, simple atmospheric guitar enters, breathy vocals hinting at the heartbreak. Mysterious. Haunting. "I'm terrified".

There's an emotional nakedness, a vulnerability that sucks in the listener, demands a hearing. "Have a good day, despite what news may come your way..."

Then Things Get Rockier

Not only the hard-driving guitars, bass, and drums, but also the emotional terrain. Vocals get edgy at times, the friends harmonize- the basis of healing and succor.

Things Get Complex

Certainly the gutsy bass lines, the angular guitar riffs, the full-throated vocals. "Isolation calls". Climactic music, intensity, pushing into darker emotional territory- "Rescue me, help me to cry". Vocals wail and weave in and out of the emotional morass, with pained loveliness.

And Lumbers to An Uncertain End

With muted howls of guitar feedback, the song fades...does it end?

My rating: 4+ stars- emotional depth, musical richness, soulful struggle.

The songs started out with no intention of being tied together in any way, but Andrew soon discovered that they seemed to have a common theme of the descent and self-destruction of humanity. "Early Morning Forecast" was written 10 years ago for one of Andrew's previous bands (Microfiction) but was never used until now because it fit in well with the album theme. It starts out heavy with a Rush-like beginning, but soon mellows out when the vocals begin while retaining it's fast tempo. The original riff reappears from time to time between verses. Things slow down quite a bit in the middle and vocals continue surrounded by keys, soft guitars, percussion and lots of layer percussion before it resumes its heavier nature. "Shells of Ire" has a Heavy Prog beginning and has three vocalists, one of them sings with dirty vocals, so be aware of that. The beginning heaviness and rough voice suddenly gives was to quietness, some meandering before clean vocals start against a pleasant sounding synth, quite a contrast to the beginning. The melody and structure is more complex than the first track. In unison dual vocals come in later and they later harmonize. A sudden jump in intensity bring in the dirty vocals again for a section before solo female vocals finish it all out.

The title track "In Fantasy" is a bit longer at just over 8 minutes. It starts with the tolling of a bell and a more laid-back style. Emily begins singing a lovely melody with some frantic drum passages keeping things on the edge, but for now, things stay lovely, and for the 2nd verse, harmonies are added and a trumpet plays along as support. Things quiet down before the halfway point as electronic percussion keeps a slow beat as a violin plays, then sudden dark, chanting style vocals come in and then Emily eventually starts singing again, the track remaining on the soft side, but teetering on the edge of becoming heavier, as it does later retaining the same tempo. The keys work to keep the vocal sections on a brighter side when they come back in. This is an excellent 5 star track with a lot of styles and textures and beautiful vocals. Very nice!

"Hydrocarbonsoul" is a guitar-heavy instrumental track that remains quite progressive throughout. Frantic drumming pushes the track along, but does so as the meters changes from time to time. Andy Smith plays a complex solo later. "Calming Waters" comes next, and is an epic style track at over 10 minutes. It begins with spoken words passed between three characters know as "The Travellers". Soft guitar then precede melodic vocals. Drums establish a slow, soft rhythm as the violin soon joins in as Benjamin's vocals continue. There is a sudden increase in heaviness and Emily begins to sing another melody. Vocals trade back and forth as they take turns telling the story as characters. The music grows in complexity and steps up in intensity as it goes on. The progressivness also increases as the instrumental section begins around 4 minutes. A trumpet comes in for a while, then the track suddenly goes a lot softer, choral effects begin as synth layers and shimmering guitars meander along, but the atmosphere is dark and foreboding. The trumpet rejoins later, but the atmosphere remains as before. At 8 minutes, an acoustic guitar brings in another sudden increase in loudness and an exciting guitar driven section pushes forward. Emily's vocals return at 9 minutes and soon after, things get soft again. This is another excellent track with a lot of dynamics and progressive passages.

"Real Flames" is another older track written at the same time as "Early Morning Forecast". This one has a somewhat tropical feel at first, is a bit brighter, but gets heavier as it continues. A nice effect is added when the string effect adds a staccato sound. The music goes off into a soft, jazzy style and bring in another melody in the vocals. The sound of this track is quite a bit brighter than the other tracks on the album, but it remains quite progressive changing in intensity, meter and style. Even though overall the track is bright, it still ventures into darker and heavier territory from time to time. The main theme that it keeps returning to is light though. There is an excellent guitar solo at the end. After this, there is a quick transitory track called " . . . (the anthropic burn-off)". It's a menacing sound produced by keyboard layers. Next is the track "Glint", which is a re-recording of a track from the "Kepler" EP. Programmed drums provide a insistent beat and layers of noisy guitars create a wall. Clean vocals begin, and then the trumpet joins the fray and dirty vocals begin. Later, the vocals pass off to Emily and later heavy guitars pound out a tricky progression while the trumpet begins again on top of it all. Soon, dirty vocals return and pass off to clean vocals again. All of this happens in a short 4 minute track.

The last track is the 9+ minute track "Aquamarina". It begins quite softly with acoustic guitars and minimal synths. Wordless vocals from Benjamin meander along with the music, but the spotlight gets handed over to a clarinet that continues to play softly. After 2 minutes, Benjamin continues to sing, the melody as meandering as the instruments. A sudden interruption later brings the song out of its trancelike state as the full band comes in with a heavy progressive section. Strange harmonies come in later in vocal layers. The music soon returns to the softer sound and the clarinet returns with some glitchy electronic effects and electronic percussion, which work to build the intensity back up slowly. Instead of any burst of energy however, there is an excerpt of Carl Sagan's keynote speech at NCSU on February 9, 1990. When this finishes, there is a great guitar solo from Andy. A final vocal section closes off the track in a dramatic ending.

This is a great album, but I can't help but think the two older tracks tend to take away from the entire experience a bit. Those two tracks are not bad, its just that they distract from the power of the rest of the album. At the same time, there are some definite 5-star tracks here that make it all very worth while. The longer tracks are quite epic, but even some of the shorter tracks pack quite a lot of dynamic and progressive qualities, with maybe only the first track being the most "pop" sounding of them all. Nothing else on here is really standard enough to be considered pop. The progressive aspects definitely outweigh everything else. In the end, this is definitely an album worth checking out, especially for the stronger tracks. The album is by all means worth all 4 of its stars that I give it. It only misses the highest ranking because of the few weaker tracks that take away from the power of the album. The combination of vocalists and their styles definitely work towards the greatness of the album.

It starts with "Dwell" whose first 15 seconds are a nice electronic introduction that later vanishes in order to open the gates to the post metal sound, which is wonderfully complemented by a female voice. Then the male one appears and takes the leadership, the music flows and produces that powerful sound that make us move our head. After two minutes the music slows down, a new pastoral passage begins, it lasts for some seconds, but I loved that change; later, the power returns, but the song itself grabs your attention, at least it did it with me.

The sound of guitar and drums in "Mantle" continue with the same vein, and what I also like is the accurate use of keyboards, which may not be the main character of the music, but its work appears in the right moment. Now here I have a problem, because I am not into growling vocals, and though the music does not harm my attention, the voice does. But well, later the female voice returns and softens the music a bit, though the brutal spirit prevails. After two minutes it vanishes, a new structure appears and a moment of calm is shown. Some names such as Rain Delay or Grayceon come to my mind in some passages.

"Glint" is an odd track, like a strange mixture of rage and softness, metal, jazz and electronica. For me the female voice is a real help, otherwise I think I would not keep my good intentions with just growling vocals. The sound is faster at first, and it flows perfectly; the introduction of trumpets is nice, though I don't know if purist metalheads like it, to me is actually something new, innovative, something I would like to clap.

Finally "Kepler", with over 11 minutes of music, is the main reason of the existence of this EP. I would not say this is like all the previous songs put together, but the sound might sum up the first 3 tracks. Anyway it is obvious that the structure and composition is different, but the Look to Windward particular touch is placed here, with that faster and furious moments that contrast with delicate and soft passages. The addition of winds is very provocative, that slice of jazz makes me want to dig more about this band, because not everyone dares to include them. I cannot deny that when the male growls appear my moment of joy vanishes, but that's just me, the band does not need to stop doing that, because it is part of its essence.

Well, if you are looking for new, good music that can be free and legal to download, you can choose this one. My final grade, 3 solid stars in a subjective way, 4 in an objective one, I bet people who like metal will really dig this one.

Enjoy it!

"Dwell" From those first notes to the bursting forth of Enchant-like riffs and velvety feminine vocals, I was impressed. It runs likes a pounding, metal version of The Decemberists ending in a satisfying major-seventh chord and violin interlude. The structure moves in ways both pleasing and unnerving.

"Mantle" For those who enjoy troll singing, this will be good, but I much prefer the elven refrain that rebuts it- beautiful, sailing like a vessel over stormy oceans.

"Glint" Cyclically energetic, "Glint" pummels itself into brass notes and silly barking. It's okay- the dog stops to let the owner drive the listener into hypnosis, where the slower tempo guitar and brass bear down.

"Kepler" For those awaiting a punchier breed of metal, there's the title track. The vocal honey holds it smoothly together. With quieter passages reminiscent of dark Echolyn and female vocals setting them apart, this moves into psychedelic metal territory worthy of the minutes it uses.

Look to Windward is an interesting band from New Zealand which has a progressive metal orientation, a two-men act who fortunately (for us, the listeners) offer their music as a pay- what-you-want download, and when this happens, the least we can do is listening to them. This EP is just a taste of their full-length album, both of them released in 2010, and a proof that in the furthest places in the world, we will always find good music.

"The Assemble", which is the title of this EP, consists of three songs that make a total time of 21 minutes. It kicks off with "Vad Askan Sade" starts with a powerful sound, bombastic guitars, drums and keyboards that later slow down a little bit, just when vocals appear. After a minute and a half the structure makes a complete change, so the sound is divided in different episodes in this single track. There are death vocals (which I don't particularly like), but give sorrow and power to the music, which is greatly complemented by fantastic keyboards. It is a very well composed song.

"Assemble" after some seconds of a soft guitar, the music explodes and becomes powerful and with rage inside, the vocals are death ones again. The instrumental passages are by far much better, but well, this is a subjective thing since I don't really like this kind of voices. After three minutes a soft and spacey melody begins, which is my favorite part of the song.

And finally "Danger Eyes", a 9-minute track that easily shows the band's compositional skills. Here I do like the vocals and how the perfectly complement the music. Both members of the band play the main role, they are a perfect couple that cannot be separated, otherwise this project would fail. I like a lot the changes in time and tempo, and the guitar work overall, here you will have moments of tranquilization, and moments of anger.

This is a nice EP, and as I said, if you like this, then you will probably love the full-length album. Though this is not really the type of music I follow, it is evident that the band is talented and with a provocative sound, that will catch the attention of a ton of prog metal lovers. My final grade will be three stars.

Enjoy it!

When I first started listening to the album I was a bit concerned by the first vocals I heard, which aren't bad but I didn't want to sit through 1.2 hours of them. But thank god the album shows a great array of vocal styles which are a real highlight.

The album oscillates in intensity throughout, with tension building ambient sections being followed by rhythmic distorted metal.

And what really puts the icing on the cake is that these boys are from New Zealand (like myself (so maybe there is a bit of bias in this review)). But the reason this is impressive is that NZ doesn't really have a prog scene. In fact the only other two bands I can think of are Split Enz and Jakob.

This album is truly worth 5 stars. It is a masterpiece.

Instead of me righting a summery of each song how about you go straight to band camp and download the album for free. And if you like it (and I'm sure you will) you can go back and pay however much you think it is worth.

Look to Windward is a new progressive metal band founded in New Zealand. The Kiwi act is a project of Andrew McCully and Benjamin Morley, and they certainly seem to know what they're doing. The "bedroom producers," as artists of their kind are called, have written and recorded a spectacular and extremely professional album. "Fortunes Haze" is their debut, and is full of some of the most innovative music I've heard in a while. The progressive metal genre today is an overcrowded and often uncreative place, full of wannabes and copy bands. Look to Windward is able to rise above this trend with an extremely unique vision and a musical direction that is sure to go extremely far.

The album kicks of with the killer track Danger Eyes. Even the first few seconds of the album show the great creativity these guys have. No traditional riffing or virtuoso soloing all over the place, these guys pull out a great riff that is bombastic and in your face the whole way through. The use of melody is spot on, perfectly complimenting the (tastefully) harsh guitar work. The rhythms are dead on, polyrhythmic, and inventive. The instrumental section is subtle and quiet, showing that this band has no trouble in slowing down and dishing out something more sincere and mellow. Overall, this is easily one of my favorite tracks on the album, and for good reasons.

The three part 16 part epic title track starts out with the death inspired part one, Assemble. With a throbbing groove metal feel, the song is easily one of the heaviest tracks on the album. Dishing out more of the spot on polyrhythmic mastery, with bombastic and throbbing drum beats and rhythm guitar backing. The screaming vocals suit the music perfectly, complimenting each note with a great dynamic. The clean vocals are slightly distorted, making for another nice dynamic. Although this track is not the strongest on the album, it is still a great song.

Parts 2 and 3 of Fortunes Haze are Exodus/Return, combined into one track. The song is much slower and opens with a voice. The music slowly crescendos, into a distorted ambient soundscape with rumbling guitars and quiet atmospheric soundscapes. Most of "Exodus" is very quiet, with the mellow piano interludes slowly building to a crashing and sweeping metal piece, most likely the transition to "Return." The majority of the song is a great mellow mix, fusing together the inventive prog metal from the rest of the album with some great ambient, mellow, and melodic interludes and calm sections. Overall, this is one killer track, just hitting 11 minutes, and full of some really fantastic stuff.

Control opens with another mellow intro, starting with some dissonant acoustic, piano, vocal, and string dynamics. Most of the song is an atmospheric trip, mixing even some electronic feels into the music. It takes a good 4 minutes for the great acoustic and electronic soundscapes to transition into a harder hitting alternative metal masterpiece, fusing alt metal with some really cool prog metal elements, with more electronic twists and polyrhythmic and off beat rhythms that really fit the music. Overall, Control offers yet another fantastic track for this album.

Zero Parallax is a two minute ambient track, with little but some interesting soundscapes to its name. Its main purpose is to set up an interesting transition between the first half and second half of the album.

Behind Red Curtains starts out slow, very slow, with some doomy riffing and steady atmospheres. Soon the song breaks into a hard hitting sludge metal track, with some slow and steady sludge riffs and some heavy rhythms behind it. A mellow mellotron interlude breaks the sludge, with some nice flute and string effects. The rest of the track continues that sludgey feel, ending the song with a more mellow but still heavily doom/sludge influenced. Overall another good song.

Vad Åskan Sade is another one of my favorites off the album. Quoted from my review of the band's EP: "Vad Åskan Sade starts...off with a jazzy twist, throwing in some brass with some cool jazzy guitars. The song then flows into a symphonic grace period, mixing some zesty metal with orchestral beauty. Somehow, the band is able to fuse some cheesy keyboard voices with intense and heavy guitar work to make a really epic piece of music. The whole track contains countless ideas melded together in absolute grace and lucidity."

Deception starts slow again, with some mellow piano/acoustic guitar harmonizations. The 10 minute long song encompasses more ambient soundscapes, mixing some great vocal melodies with spacey backgrounds before breaking into the heavier riffing. The heavier sections start out slow to, with some cool creative rhythms backing it, and soon breaking into some really great arpeggio sweeping. The instrumental section has the strongest standard prog metal influence, but still has some really great twists to go along with it. The adventurous sound of Haken comes to mind on this song too, fusing the great jazzy and spacey elements of their adventurous sound. It ends with similar to how it began, with a nice ambient piano outro. Overall, being 10 minutes long, the band was able to pack in quite a bit of great stuff, and they had no trouble making it worth the listener's while.

Forest is Moving, the 12 minute closer piece, opens for the first time in a while with a pretty steady throbbing prog metal riff session. Combing this time some really great post-metal feels, the song builds slowly after the first riffing piece to a great experimental metal section. Even entering into mathcore-ish rhythms at times, the song never stops surprising me. Multiple ambient interludes throw you off guard, until the last couple minutes where the song keeps a steady metal fist of fury and charges into oblivion. The first real vocals come almost 10 minutes in, with avant-garde fury, also. Switching from death growls to soprano squealing, the song almost never stops. The album slowly fades out, as the song slows to a bearable pace, and this fantastic debut is done. Overall, Forest is Moving is another of my favorites on the album, with a supernumerary amount of dynamic elements and surprises musically. It ends the album in a spectacular fashion, summing up most of the musical vision that this band takes. Through all 12 minutes of mastery, it never gets old.

ALBUM OVERALL: What a spectacular debut. All the way from New Zealand, Look to Windward has delivered a sucker punch of some of the best prog metal I've heard in 2010. Mixing subtle post-metal influences with bombastic prog metal mastery, the band is able to flesh out some really creative stuff. With the perfect amount of polyrhythmic drumming and off beat guitar accents, each song has some really cool elements. And on top of all this, it was released on my birthday! 4 stars.

"The Assemble" is an EP from new progressive metal artist, Look to Windward. The three songs on it are from their other 2010 release, "Fortunes Haze". It includes a good progressive metal sound mixed with decent vocals and some growling. It also includes some avant-garde feel in it. The first song "Vad Åskan Sade" starts off with a very avant-garde feel, with sound effects and some good drumming and guitars. The drumming on this EP is very solid, providing a good beat to support the underlying tones of both the acoustic and electric guitars.

The vocals on this album change a lot from one song to the other, even though there are only three songs on the entire EP. The first section of "Vad Åskan Sade" has very light and drifty vocals to it, which go along nicely with the deep guitars. Andrew McCully makes decent use of the keyboards, making long drawn out note values with it. This blends in with the vocals, in that light feel. Then the song drifts into a more metal phase, with much heavier guitars in it. The movement of going from softer metal to much deeper, heavier metal adds to the songs overall feel.

The growling on this album is ok, to say the least. It has a lot of movement to it that is punctuated with deep guitar licks, and powerful drumming. The second song, "Assemble", is mostly all progressive death metal; it's driven mostly by Benjamin Morley's growls, which are much better on this song. This song features almost no keyboards, which I tend to like with my death metal, especially when it is progressive. This song sounds a lot like Death would if they were much more progier.

The production on this album is very clean and much like the rest of today's modern prog bands. Nothing in my mind sets this apart from other EP's or albums that I've listened to in the past, making it an average at best album. The band has lots to look forward to, since both Benjamin Morley and Andrew McCully have good talent and sound. For Look to Windward's good, but promising EP, they get 3 stars.

Look to Windward is a new New Zealand prog metal band that fuses alt rock elements with some really great tech prog metal elements for a zesty new brand of music. The two man band has quickly gone from bedroom-producers to a small, but considerable following. Seeing as they are independent and from New Zealand, an international audience may have seem far fetched, but thanks to a few posts on the ProgArchive forum (or at least that's how I found them), many more people now know of this fantastic band. The Assemble EP is a taster for what has appeared on the latest (and first) studio album, Fortunes Haze. The music is a tasty mix of metal, and I strongly support getting a copy of this EP.

Vad 'skan Sade starts the album off with a jazzy twist, throwing in some brass with some cool jazzy guitars. The song then flows into a symphonic grace period, mixing some zesty metal with orchestral beauty. Somehow, the band is able to fuse some cheesy keyboard voices with intense and heavy guitar work to make a really epic piece of music. The whole track contains countless ideas melded together in absolute grace and lucidity. A great opener, to say the least.

Assemble, the "title" track, could be seen as a little weaker than the opener, but still has a very strong output. From the start, the song has a throbbing groove metal feel, with djenty guitar riffs and some great screaming vocals. The song even spaces out a little with some more ambient guitar solos and backing tracks. The song then proceeds to breakdown into a mellow melodic section with some cool percussion and spacey guitars. The slightly distorted vocals are little out there, but the backing band does make up for it with some cool extreme metal backings. Overall, this song has many more weak spots that the last track, but still outputs a strong effort.

Danger Eyes is certainly my favorite track on the EP. The opening riff is highly inventive and infectious to listen to. The song really shows the band's creative talent and technical ability. This song has another melodic and mellow/ambient breakdown, with some odd mixings of quiet vocal harmony and randomized clean guitar chords. The song is able to weave in and out of these sections, peppering in a few harder hitting metal sections with some softer sections, making this another exceptional track of a rather exceptional release from this new band.

ALBUM OVERALL: Look to Windward has done a great thing with this EP. Releasing it as a free download on their Bandcamp, they allowed everyone to taste some of the best music off of their debut album. And with this taste, I got hooked. The three tracks featured show the band's intense talent and creativity within a genre that often lacks creativity. The production is highly professional, which is great for a basement recording session. However, the reason I didn't give this a 5 star rating is mainly because all it is is an EP with some tester tracks, and although they are great, they really aren't the most essential thing. If you want good LtW, get the debut album. 3+ stars.