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Review:
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Now here’s a band name that will make you squirm uneasily
in your seat. Although it conjures up horrific images of
a death metal band doing unspeakable things to you unmentionables,
they are in fact an Israeli prog rock group! Introitus and
now this, I shudder to think what’s next. Apparently it’s
a private way of soul cleansing, which seems fair enough.
It’s taken keyboarder Constantin Glantz and his friends
9 years to create this opus about a person whose life is
gradually getting more desperate, like crawling on increasingly
thin ice, leading to madness. It kicks off with something
that sounds like Phantom of the Opera, before Orphaned Land
briefly burst in, it turn into a catchy melodic pop rock
song with Irene Sherr’s superb voice, then Keith Emerson
joins in, it turns proggy, then middle eastern, then heavier,
Rick Wakeman turns up with Fagin, and we’re only on the
first tune ‘The Land Derailed’! ‘The Last Night’ and ‘Quicksand
Lies’ are groovy and jazzy, with lots of great synths, reminding
me of Patrick Moraz, before they zoom off all over the place,
but they never forget to pop in a catchy tune. ‘Crystal
Territory’ and ‘Splinter’ are like ELP, Rick Wakeman, Queen,
Jethro Tull, Bonzo Dog Do-Dah Band and Dreamtheater going
barking mad, wonderful stuff, music to bring a smile to
your face. ‘Other Line’ and ‘Holy Ghost’ are more atmospheric,
like Pink Floyd mixed with Ayreon and Pendragon. The epic
‘911’ throws everything into the pot, and finally you get
the moody late night jazzy instrumental ‘Thin Ice Crawling’.
The sound is faultless, the musicianship top drawer, Constantin’s
keys absolutely superb and Irene’s voice most excellent.
Most bands would have got 5 albums out these 67 minutes
of music. The bottom line is that if you like any sort of
prog and melodic rock then this is a revelation. You can
flush out a copy at CD Baby, and their Myspace is http://www.myspace.com/soulenema
, a most worthy 9 out of 10.
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