EXPERIMENTAL/POST METAL

I wouldn't say that I've been a band fan as such, but hey, this one has changed it all. What a great production! First of all, you immediately will recognize, what is serving an omnipresent impression are the lead vocals of course, contributed by Joel Ekelöf. In addition the overall sound is that rounded, a matter that needed some preparation time for sure, with the result of a priceless atmosphere. Kudos to all the involved musicians as well. All being superb finally. In order to highlight some extraordinary excerpts let me name the hymnic Monarch, furthermore, adapted from the 2019 'Lotus' release, the enchanting Lunacy questioning the ability to remember who you are. On Jinn the bass takes a giding role. Modesty sees the ensemble on its peak regarding the mode of expression. Designated prog metal fans may shun away from this production. Then again here we most probably have something appealing to neo prog fans at hand. Anyway, my conclusion: yet a great thing to enjoy!

Always known for his massive Arrangements and extremer than life Metal escapades, Devin Townsend seems to grow more mature with each release. For me his heyday isn´t long gone and he is further away from growing bald than ever since at least Transcendence, getting more experimental with each release. Lightwork his newest work of what fans started calling Therapy Metal is far from as simple as it seems on the surface. Not stopping his for some overwhelming quote unquote "wall of sound" approach he still manages to be a lot more subtle with Lightwork than ever. Mostly in the department of small harmonic shifts with drastic colour change like in the prechorus of equinox. That little bit is a brutally complex state of the art jazz what the heck and I love its magic. And other hot parts like the final shift to minor at the end of Moonpeople for the last phrase. This part feels like diving into a deep blue sea of dreams. Lightworker works with brilliant dynamic shifts that are effectively passages as grand as damwalls next to flower beds, but he makes them as smooth as a milkshake. Dimensions is more prog in a few minutes than most peoples careers (to bring some of the prog review standards ; ) ) It manages to never break out and still maintaining the intensity of Strapping Young lad. Some of the songs are pure power pop fan service I have to admit. Looking at Celestial Signals and Call of the Void. But they are great anyway. And there is the onomatopoetic masterpiece heavy burden that manages to sound like radiohead with a childrens choir that slowly drift into some islandish stuff that drifts to a passage of classical drama to end in something that sounds very cardiacs. The whole song is actually very cardiacs and hyper weird. Its one of my favorites on the album though. Oh I forgot to mention Devin using his guitar like whale noise. The Ending song Children of God is actually a masterwork in modern symphony and a reason why for me Devin is more and more turning from a rock musician to a real symphonic classical master. And someday he will be appreciated for these dare I say divinely beautiful layers of sound. If you listen to only one listen to Children of God. Its a mellow journey through his whole harmonic melodic and rhythmic palette and often its like 5 songs playing at the same time. (listen carefully and with good headphones)

So in the end Lightwork is a subtle almost masterpiece. But on the whole a bit too directionless to really function as a whole. The ideas are all their though and I would like to see plenty of them more fully explored.

Excellent addition to any prog rock collection nonetheless.

'Moonpeople' nice, opening pop song with a sound like THE GATHERING, AYREON while rising with a heady riff. Awe-inspiring, ethereal 'Lightworker' intro, post-pandemic lullaby? The sound is intended to be expressive, there is an air of a carnival; the station wagon brings the typical heavy cries, you don't change a man like that; the weird symphonic keyboards and introduce 'Equinox' yes for a few seconds I thought about that too' Jean-Michel Jarre's 'Equinoxe'; in the same melodious tone. 'Call of the Void' on a monolithic soft track with no interest other than the distinctive keyboard; sweet sentimentality that passes like ice cream in the sun. 'Heartbreaker' arrives and returns to the DTP sound with a ballad on a syncopated sound of keyboards, soft-rock air intermixed with various voices, psychic relaxation; fleeting reminiscences of Oldfield too.

'Dimensions' Teutonic industrial rock, powerful, catchy; Killing Joke even Rammstein, screaming voice and air where the solo seems to come out of nowhere; tortured sound typed with metallic drums and padded synths. 'Celestial Signals' continues with the Devin sound; wall of sound after an airy pop-new wave couplet, bombastic choirs and seagulls at the end. 'Heavy Burden' industrial pop-metal where the sampled voice denotes singularly; children coming to chat, perky synth; an eerie art-rock operatic riff arises, overhears, a chirp and country-folk 'Vacation' arrives, soft, regressive, denoting launching 'Children of God' long monolithic track with mantra rhythm; the finale with waves, seagulls and fog horn wakes up to land on the shore.

Devin emerges from the pandemic casting a direct sound, less aggressive, more musical, a light in the dark; opus with varied and repetitive titles, musical oxymoron; accompanied by artists changing her own creative ideas, Anneke Van Giersbergen, Mike Keneally, Steve Vai and the Elektra Women's Choir; a commercial musical bridge with a demo cd for an accessible album.

In short, what we have here is a comeback to the most commercial passages of albums like "Addicted!" and "Epicloud", with new age touches in the style of "Ghost", resulting in a somewhat monotonous and uninspired album, whose baroque production is not able to hide.

That monotony is broken by the more progressive Heartbreaker, which reminds me of the more elaborate passages of the much superior "Transcendence", and a kind of homage to his most industrial phase in the interesting Dimensions, which includes a good solo by the always willing to collaborate Steve Vai.

Therefore, the fact that "Empath" didn't quite live up to expectations and that this "Lightwork" is a downright mediocre album, makes me think that the golden boy of prog is slowly losing his magic touch.

But hey... We'll always have his great albums from the past!

Best Tracks: Moonpeople (good chorus and great guitar riffs), Heartbreaker (wonderful guitar work and a central part that brings back some of the chaos and genius that made Devin great in the past) and the aforementioned Dimensions (these growls!!!)

My Rating: **

His energetic memories can be heard especially through the second track "Nitlасhie Imania", the longest one in this album. Darkly atmospheric opening is quite meaningful. Followed by heavy, violent guitar dissonance that should beat our brain. The middle movement full of oriental calmness and weird, mystic ambience cannot stabilize our inner mind. But we can grab out his powerful attitude in the latter part ... he might say he never loses now and forever no matter how difficult the circumstances around him are. Of course, challenging issues will not change in future. Such a painful heart attack might be launched via the following track "Itznoxochiuh" drenched in tribal, ethnic melody texture and global musical essence mixture.

Love also drastically sticky metallic psychedelia in "Caquiztini". Distortion of melodic bases and repetitive rhythmic tremens are pretty attractive and addictive. On the other hand "Tliltic Mixаyahuitl" sounds eerier, weirder along with mysterious percussion and offensive electronika. These vibes drive us into madness. The last "Tonаlpolihuiyampа" could give us a slight warmth of the sun. Wondering if it's only me to feel such a warm atmosphere is kinda personal touch or personal nudge. Or his wondrous ethnicity makes me feel so I imagine? At any rate, this brilliant creation produced by his great creativity should be welcome.

Notice all three of their album covers are dark. Each release has had a different drummer on it but the guitarist Mike Milaniak and warr guitar player and composer Jason Blake are the two constants. By the way on the first two records Jason played grand stick and stick bass but on this record it's a 12 string warr guitar, and there are bass strings on it as well so that's pretty cool. These guys have played in concerts with FAR CORNER, DON CABALLERO, TILES and others of course. This is heavy music man. Four songs worth almost 50 minutes and you will take a beating listening to this guaranteed. I spun the other two on the weekend for comparisons sake and yup same sounding band but I do feel this is a little heavier, more metallic and a little darker.

So many amazing moments as these guys can play and we get plenty of complexity on display. Hard to pick a favourite as the album comes across as being one long piece in it's attitude and sound. The title track at over 21 minutes would be my default choice for the drum work, changes in tempo and mood. So much depth but the drumming for me really stands out on this one. Awesome track! I'm not going to describe the music other than that, I would be repeating myself a lot.

This is my music though and it's been an absolute pleasure to spend some time with this cd. Fourteen years since their last release and they haven't missed a beat. A very solid 4 stars for this daunting album.

As soon as it starts, we are deep inside the world of Orphaned Land, a world where all cultures are welcome and they are brought together so Moslems, Jews and Christians all exist in one place in a state of grace, all being lifted by the others. The core quintet has brought in plenty of guests to provide additional colour and tones, with instruments like bendir, darbuka, oud and qanun being brought alongside electric guitars. It is an album of extremes as we journey through the world of their creation where everyone coexists alongside each other, so we hear multiple languages and styles, yet with these guys it all makes sense and is beautiful and never clashing. It can be incredibly light and acoustic, or ferocious and pummelling and one never knows where it is going to go next. Given the album is so diverse it seems somewhat strange to say this is easy to get inside, yet the depths only really become apparent with repeated plays.

This album is four years old now, but is fresh, exciting and invigorating as Orphaned Land continue to pursue their vision.

My first two attempts were aborted because of lack of uninterrupted/undisrupted time, but I distinctly remember thinking, both times, "I'm nowhere near in the mood to take this on." Today I've carved out the time I need to devote to doing my review.

The drumming and percussion work is wonderful. The keyboard work is interesting and well spread out among a multitude of instruments and sounds though the use of "old" keyboards (old sound samples providing the programmable sounds) is always disappointing to me. The guitar work is pretty standard--especially in terms of sounds and styles used. But it is the vocals (as diverse as they are) that I find laughable and, frankly, unenjoyable--even despite the talented theatricities. As my immediate predecessor, JohnProg, noted, there are many enjoyable melodies and dynamic and stylistic shifts (e.g., in the more instrumental "Mayonaka no Kaii"), within many of the songs (with great drum play throughout), but, at the same time, there are so many sounds that feel borrowed and recycled (from other bands/songs). I do not feel as if this album or music has brought anything new or exciting to the world of Progressive Metal music; on the contrary, it may, in fact, be more "retro" than forward thinking.

For those who love the "classic" sounds and riffs of the historical line of metal music, this might be an excellent grab. For those who are looking for boundary pushing music within the Prog Metal subgenres, this may not be up to your hopes and/or expectations. For those of you who are not really metal lovers, this probably won't be your cup of tea--this despite the usual Japanese skill and energy that it contains. I wholly respect the artistry and effort that went into putting this album together, which is why I would never consider rating this any lower than three stars: they are, after all, professionals; I know that there are many artists out there that could never do better.

In addition to never reaching abstraction or the 'post-rock' approach (where the sound is more important than the forms) that 'Avant-garde' bands are accustomed to; "Shiki" -in its austere forty-six minutes- offers us groovy riffs, epic choruses and dynamic sections that musicians like Mikael Akerfeldt would surely like.

So, a little history about Intronaut. They are a California-based progressive metal band formed in 2004 with the lineup of Sacha Dunable, Leon del Muerte, Danny Walker, and Joe Lester. Throughout their career, they have released several albums with styles ranging from more sludge metal approaches to nearly post-metal acclaims, plus they went on tour with some notable acts such as Animals As Leaders and the great band Mastodon. This album is their 6th studio record after their 2015 release of The Direction of Last Things, released on February 28th, 2020. Before making this review I had never heard of this band, but after listening to this album I cannot deny that like a fisherman and their fish, I got hooked onto their boat with many other fishes, because this album is so freaking good.

For me, this album begins with a really strong prelude, that being Procurement of the Victuals. Now I do not particularly like talking about tracks that are more or less just small and quick openers for the album to begin with, but here I think I should because this one opening movement does bring to light the band's more cacophony appeal to progressive metal. It doesn't waste any time getting you into what the band wants you to hear, and what they want you to hear is some intensely immaculate metal. While not my favorite song here, I cannot deny that without this album it may be in an odd place for me.

Likewise, with the prelude, the first real track of Cubensis doesn't waste any time and gets right into the freeway of some tightly knit metal. This band knows how to stir its flavors in its pot. I am getting stuff that harkens to the more technical side of metal, while also going deep into the more sludge metal approach that bands like Mastodon would set a stage for in the early 2000s. Not only does this song rock, but it is a headbanger, even in the later half where things are a tad more like post-metal and thus quieter. It is an impressive and great force of heavy metal that shouldn't be underestimated.

However, that was merely an appetizer for the other great songs off this album, especially in retrospect to The Cull. If you really wanna hear that more sludge metal crossover between post-metal then this is the song for you. It gives a textural experience that a lot of post-rock music loves to do, but still retains that toxic waste like sludge in the mix, especially with the vocals. Sacha's and Dave's vocals on this album do give that good mix of that soft and clean metal appeal, and that grimey and sloppy appeal, similar to how the instrumentation has that divide of the mellow post-rock and the meaty sludge metal. I am a big fan of this approach because it mixes a ton of flavors so well that I cannot stop listening to it no matter what. There is always something new to expect and I love it.

One of the best things about this album is that it consistently delivers on what I have said before on The Cull. The next track of Contrapasso shows off more of that fun division of soft and hard metal, and not only do they deliver a ton with their music, blending a bit more ambiance with this song a bit more, they still retain that head bangy sound that I cannot help but fawn over. It is just that great.

Now while I would say that this consistency can be somewhat of a downfall for most albums, the band tries to spice things up by employing some more influences. Speaking Of Orbs is a great example of that. Not only do we get that same ol' awesome sludge metal the band has established, we even get a mix with a more Between The Buried And Me sound, specifically with their softer moments like with Desert of Song or the beginning half of Monochrome. As a BTBAM head, this was a very pleasant surprise to hear from what I'd expect to be another track that takes the same notes as the last four, so the experimentation on here is much appreciated. It is also probably one of the prettiest tracks on here, with the softer vocals and the use of atmospheric guitar melodies rather than riffs and growls. It is the stand-out highlight of this album for me.

Tripolar goes back to the sludge metal aspects that the band posed at the start, but we get a tiny bit of thrash and death metal on here that I think adds some great use of that more experimental side of metal. However that is merely for the first half, the second half continues that atmospheric side of their music that I have been loving ever since the first track. This second half soon loops back around to where the first half ended off, with that more death metal approach. Amazing progression throughout that I cannot help but adore.

If you want some more of their more heavy stuff then Check Your Misfortune is a good one to look into. Unlike most songs here, the more atmospheric moments are just as heavy as the harder moments on this song which I think allows the band to stretch their legs in that heavier side of music that they have an affinity for. How the song keeps up with this headbanger style of music but still progresses towards a clear-cut movement is how I like my progressive metal. A clear-cut forwarded movement that builds up and changes throughout.

I think the grandest song off of here has to be Pangloss. It carries the last few songs of this album in such a way that I cannot help but love it. It goes into the sludge metal the band dabbles with a lot, getting deep and dirty with that style of music on here, almost to the point where they almost dabble in stoner metal. With this track, you still have that progression, but the heavier side of the coin getting a lot dirtier just adds another layer to this immaculate lasagna the band has cooked up for my ears.

Rounding everything off is Sour Everything. I think this track not only is a great closure for this amazing album, but it goes back to what the past songs did and utilizes those same techniques here, experimenting with a wide range of influences from sludge metal, to post-metal, to even the more heroic feeling technical metal they had on Speaking of Orbs. It all builds up into this wide range of sounds that then get cut off by this soothing keyboard melody that is dim compared to the light show that we just experienced on this record. While it ends differently than how the album began, I do see it fits well with the sound the band painted here, thus creating a proper finale to this album that I think is a clear, and focused masterpiece.

When I jumped into this I expected something wild and crazy, but what I got was a mix of beauty, grittiness, and awesomeness rolled into one package. This has become one of my favorite metal records, and it happened by chance. If you haven't already then do yourself a favor and check this out. Run, don't walk to it, because not only is it one of the best progressive metal albums that came out this decade, I bet it can stand the test of time and be regarded as an instant classic in the music community. Give it a shot, you won't regret it.