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Monday 20 February 2023

Reviews: Westing, Super Pink Moon, Rexoria, Vision Of Choice (Reviews By David Karpel, Richard Oliver, Erick Willand & Simon Black)

Westing - Future (RidingEasy Records) [David Karpel]

As a humanities teacher, I’m constantly revisiting the question with wide-eyed highschool students of why we study history. We talk about patterns, inspiration, and lessons learned in order to not repeat mistakes of the past, but it always comes down to kids wanting to understand a way forward into a future that bears the fruits of present-day actions, their own and those of societies and civilisation as a whole. Westing naming their “debut” album Future and filling it with songs rooted in the sounds of a forward-looking, and heavily influential musical past immediately lends this infectious release the intellectual characteristics of irony and depth.

The band’s last album as their previous iteration Slow Season, titled, well, Westing, was drenched in a similar nostalgic vibe, but with a keenly more varied base found not only in the bluesy and psychedelic Zep, but also in Grand Funk Railroad, B.O.C., and Uriah Heep, among others. As Westing, on Future, their sound is more consistently influenced by the mighty Zeppelin. While mostly sticking to the Houses Of The Holy era and beyond, a wide range of Led Zeppelin finds touch-stones on this album. It’s as if the band let go of pretence and grabbed a hold of the sound they truly find worthy of reiteration in the modern era, not unlike Greta Van Fleet, but dirtier, less bombastic, and with elemental ties to the updated, smoky psychedelia of All Them Witches. Essentially, these are proto-sounds for an already updated proto-thirsty audience.

Now, there’s no denying Zeppelin’s influence on rock and roll and metal is pervasive through the eras that followed their rise, peak, and disintegration. Here again, it’s too obvious to ignore. In the era of Greta Van Fleet commanding stadium tours, that influence remains a touchy subject of how close you can get without being smeared with the derogatory moniker of a mere imitator. There is absolutely nothing derogatory I will say about Westing’s efforts on Future.

The album kicks, rips, and soars. Back In The Twenties uses a lilting, lullaby-like chorus in a stomping song that demands a 100-year historical perspective of dark comparisons. Nothing New relishes timeless bluesy grooves, while Lost Riders recalls ‘73 as if fifty years haven’t cruelly ticked away without mercy. Big Trouble (In The City Of Love) is a memorable hip-swaying romp followed by Artemisia Coming Down, which slows down and gets grandly psychedelic right when you want it to. Silent Shout follows to dip into Floyd and Moody Blues territory while maintaining the laid back, trippy light-show vibes. 

Stanley Wu reminds us we’re here to let our hair down and party, with fun barroom, bluesy keys kicking underneath. Coming Back To Me stays upbeat, and closes the album reassuring us that in the end we’re here to have some good fun, remembering good times, hanging with friends with good tunes. “I feel it all coming back to me,” goes the song, and yeah, we feel it too. And it feels really good. 8/10

Super Pink Moon - Iron Rain (Self Released) [Rich Oliver]

Iron Rain is the second album from Super Pink Moon which is the solo project of vocalist and guitarist Ihor Pryshliak of Somali Yacht Club. Based in Lviv in Ukraine, Iron Rain was written and recorded during the Russian invasion of Ukraine and “depicts the angst and emotional turmoil of having to make it through the day when surrounded by chaos”. Half the album was recorded prior to the 24th February which was the date that the Russian invasion began and the rest of the album recorded and finished during hugely scary and uncertain times. As Ihor states “All the lyrics are revolving around self-reflection on the war. It’s still hard to describe the weird mix of feelings. Sometimes you’re extremely proud and even happy, but usually, all you feel is sadness, pain, and despair.”

On the musical side of things, Super Pink Moon blends a post-rock sound with elements of shoegaze and indie rock meaning that there are dreamy soundscapes, accessible songwriting and dense riffage all combined together. The tone of the album is quite dark which is understandable given the circumstances it was written and recorded under with songs such as Everything and Per Aspera Ad Astra having a doomy atmosphere to them. Collision has a more positive feel to it whilst instrumentals Mirage and Calmness really bring forth the shoegaze and soundscape vibes incorporating some electronica influences. The vocals by Ihor are excellent and perfectly compliment the music being suitably melodic and melancholic.

I’m a sucker for melancholic music and I enjoyed Iron Rain. With lots of different sounds and influences the album is a bit uneven at times though when it hits right such as on Doomscrolling and Per Aspera Ad Astra then there is no denying the talent on display here. This is a album worth hearing for those who have melancholic and atmospheric tastes. 7/10

Rexoria: Imperial Dawn (Black Lodge) [Erick Willand]
 
Power metal holds a special place in the metal pantheon for its bright crisp production, fantasy or sci-fi lyrics, flying guitar heroics, soaring vocal deliveries and pure heavy metal anthems. This is the epic feel good, never give up, always keep fighting side of metal. Feeling down and defeated, power metal has got the songs to lift you up regardless of the obstacles in your path, like a solid friend you know you can count on to help you toss coursed jewellery into a volcano. Is Rexoria worthy to join this vaulted pantheon, let's armour up and find out.

The keyboard starts Imperial Dawn's first track Paradigm. I expected this of course but the song wastes no time at all getting into it, Frida Ohlin’s voice is strong and clear, instantly catching your attention like an arrow shot past your ear. It’s a solid opening track that gets the blood pumping and the horns raised. The next three tracks follow this fantastically with The New Revelation driving speed and catchy chorus, Devious Desire with it’s melodic power adding to the forlorn-romantics of the lyrics is just good song construction. 

Rage and Madness comes in with the tight machine gun drumming of Martin Gustavsson, who I must say is one hell of a drummer. A fast urgent burner of a song with another stand out vocal performance, this is the track I’ve already added to my personal playlist. Fading Rose marks the album midpoint with my favourite song opening yet, the melody here just sticks with you and the 80’s vibe is strong here.

Light Up The Sky heralds the second half of the album and is the most anthem-like song on Imperial Dawn. Fast and very clean, it's the first song that feels a little over done, or rather a bit un-genuine. It feels like a theme song for a Dungeons And Dragons TV show but not in a bad way. Next track Horizon gives me 80s vibes again but in a good way with a group chorus, bright keyboard work and uplifting vibe. This carries over fantastically into Set Me On Fire which just hits all the marks perfectly and is easily the most emotionally driven song on the album.

Another one for the personal playlist and the high point of the album in my humble opinion. Crushing For More is clearly the motivational song and is a solid track for sure but again gives me ‘soundtrack’ vibes, or better yet, video game add music. Which brings us to closing track Enchanted Island which has the strongest vocal performance and best blazing solo of the album easily. A strong well written ending.

Imperial Dawn is a fun album at a time when metal could use more fun (Sanguisugabogg aside). There is clear talent and heart on display here and with the fast pace, memorable choruses and trim song length I wasn’t bored at all. The only small issue is that each song could have used a bit more variation, a little more individual spice if you will. The album art is also another issue as it is amateurish at best and gives me mid 90’s I just got photoshop vibes and not in a good way. Aside from that I enjoyed this album and at least two songs ended up in personal playlist, levelling it out at a powerful 7/10

Vision Of Choice - Second Sight (Self Released) [Simon Black]

Vision of Choice is a Trad Heavy Metal project orchestrated by multi-instrumentalist Steve Brockmann, who pretty much does everything on here apart from vocals (Lukas Remus), and some additional guitar work from Ponch Satrio. I’ve come across Brockman’s work in power metal band Krilloan, which is an act I’m really appreciative of, to which he contributes guitar rather fabulously, but this is the first time I’ve come across what is effectively his own baby. Musically this is NWOBHM influenced 80’s Metal, but you can detect the influence of Euro early power bands as well.

These kind of project pieces can sometime be challenging to the ear, as so much tends to fall on the shoulders of one person, who clearly is in charge and consequently sometimes don’t feel like a cohesive band. That’s half happening here, and I was quite surprised after a first full spin to discover that this wasn’t a four or five piece band at work. Having more than one player does make a difference, and the weaving between guitars and keys works well, even if the drums do feel a bit automated. It’s that inter-playing that generates the best output here, with some lovely weaving and shredding, but sadly the vocals don’t always feel in line with the music. 

Remus is good at what he does, but the range as delivered here is fairly limited and some of the songs on here are crying out for a performance that can scale up the octaves when the music really lets rip. I get the feeling he could if he pushed himself though, as the range he covers is done effortlessly, but that variety could really push the end result from “good” to “fabulous”. The songs are OK, and a solid production job has been done, but sadly this feels like it just needed that little bit more of a push to make it rise above. The potential is there nonetheless. 6/10

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