Following
swiftly on the back of 2006’s lavishly acclaimed “Walking On H2O”, Swedish
progressive metal masterminds MIND’S EYE return with their most
ambitious and accessible album to date in “A Gentleman’s Hurricane”.
Taking their musical and lyrical vision another step on, the band has
delivered the world’s first cinematic metal triple pack consisting
of CD / Comic Book and ‘making of DVD’ which portrays the bands latest
concept with the following story premise…
In
a dark and foggy day in September, three shots are heard in the deep dark
woods of “The Mother Of Presidents” state of Virginia. Adam Evangelista, a
53 year old top assassin whose ice cold walls have now been worn down by
his continuing growing guilt, searches for an answer to it all.
Acknowledging that he can’t continue without finding a way to ease his
mind, he seeks refuge at the town’s church where Adam meets the now
retired head priest Father Cavallero Di Mori, coincidently visiting his
old church and parish. Adam tries to get into the depths of his own
disturbed but genius mind. Describing his life and assassinations for his
new friend Father Cavallero during sessions of confessions, both men
reveal deep secrets unknown to the outside world - dark secrets they are
both ashamed of. Adam’s sins and stories stretch from Sweden, Ireland,
Italy, France, to the former USSR , Mexico and the USA. Taking orders from
the well known secret society ‘The Illuminati’, Adam’s “marks” are some of
the most important people in our time. But there is a catch; only seven
days to poor his heart out before his very last job and time is running
out.
Twelve
Murders in Seven days. So little time… So much to tell…
Now normally I don’t really have much time for plots on concept albums as
they generally loose focus and well for the most part are plain boring.
But this one perked my interest, and really is the only one that has since
Queensryche’s “Operation:Mindcrime” almost 20 years ago. Anyone that read
my review of “Walking On H2O” knows that I thought it was killer, nothing
to complain about at all so how can the band go about better that? Well
simply said they have albeit in a different guise, the decision to make
the band heavier has paid dividends.
If “Walking On H2O” was prog rock, “A Gentleman’s Hurricane” is Prog Metal or
maybe Technical Metal yet still retains all the infectious vocal melodies
the band can now call a trademark. Whilst the music when placed under the
spotlight is not so complex, or maybe all over the place as say Dream
Theater there is greater attention to detail in the form of orchestration,
sound effects, voice-overs, and melody lines that are simply divine. Make
no mistake this is one seriously good sounding album and probably done on
a twentieth of the budget that many of the so-called big names get so full
marks need to go the production crew of the bands own Daniel Flores and
Johan Niemann.
Opener “Praying For Confession”
begins with a atmospheric intro (see the story intro text above)
reminiscent of a dark thriller full of eerie orchestration, sound effects
before the weary voice of main character Adam Evangelista who gives us an
insight into his mind "...Death... death comes to us all", this
paves way for grand orchestration before a child's choir adds more depth
before the band enter with simple power chords. Immediately fans of the
bands previous output will feel at home here, the trademark lush textures,
expressive vocals and overall uniqueness paves way for the track to greet
the listener with welcoming arms. Johan Niemann delivers a melodic guitar
solo over which the build up continues before we hear Adam Evangelista's
first time in confessional leading to the addictive "Seven Days"
which again is not too likely to alarm fans of the bands that got onboard
with "H2O". The track is home to a simply amazing vocal performance from
Andreas Novak whose power, pitch and overall delivery of a line is
faultless. The chorus itself is crystal meth in aural form and will be
stuck in your head long after the album has finished (and it won’t be the
last). The track then takes a brief respite before Johan delivers another
solo – perhaps best known as bassist in Therion, this guy has some serious
guitar chops and puts himself with the top players in the prog metal genre
with his performances throughout the album. The track then picks up in
tempo with
Flores
raising the intensity on the drums which is mimicked in synchronisation by
the orchestration with the last chorus seeing the track out.
“AssasiNation”
picks up in intensity where “Seven Days” left off, yet once again the
melodic content is high. The initial first verse is eerie with a sense of
impending doom before the delivery kicks into high gear. The track is
just a winner from start to finish with the band seemingly able to throw
in virtuoso musical performances (just check out the drumming here) into a
viable, accessible musical framework that in itself has enough commercial
appeal to not sound of place on the radio during a mainstream top 40
chart. Don’t let this scare you off, it’s a testament to what Mind’s Eye
have managed to do with the genre and deserves to be praised to the roof.
“Chaos Unleashed” maintains the sound heard so far yet with a few
new twists in the form of a more simplified verse and a complex middle
instrumental passage which leads into guitar and keyboard solos.
“Hell’s
Invitation” begins with some more character dialogue between Adam Evangelista
and Father Cavallero Di Mori. The tempo here is dropped back
a little which allows the chorus to swoop and dive to glorious effect
(great vocal harmonies here once again). The incessant driving
verse riff allows the keyboards to add more depth, its subtle but
once heard will blossom with each listen, the tempo picks up for
Johann to let fly with some two handed tapping before smooth legato
brings the brief solo to its climax before the chorus once again
delights. The last 30 seconds of the track sees the track
breakdown to piano and vocals with a melody that (surprisingly)
reminded me of the Pet Shop Boys hit “It’s A Sin” albeit in a rather
different musical setting. This paves way for the voice of
the head of the Illuminati to be heard for the first time before
arguably the band’s heaviest and most intense track to date. “Feed
My Revolver” will blow you away with all the power of a bullet
from “Dirty Harry” Callahan’s .44 Magnum! Check out the video
to get a feel for the track. Suffice to say all the new Mind’s
Eye ingredients come together here in fine style, although its Andreas
Novak’s soaring vocals which are the icing on the cake for me.
“Ashes
To Ashes (In Land Lullaby)” sees the tempo remain high and the dark feel looming
ever larger yet once again there is a commercial appeal here that makes it
very accessible. The track has a melodic breakdown for the bridge before
the chorus crashes back in with a voracious appetite which paves the way
for Niemann to lay down some more smoking lead lines with the main solo
being a screamer. The verses are relatively straightforward in their
approach and this gives the track more power than if more complex rhythms
were used – simply said another winner. “The Hour Of Need” gives
the listener a brief respite beginning with dialogue between Adam
Evangelista and a female escort Norma Jean. The track is delicate piano
and a vocal duet between Andreas and Crucified Barbara vocalist Mia
Coldheart whose strong vocals compliment each other extremely well.
“Red Winter Sirens” begins with more film like scene setting this
time with the action heading to Russia which then builds with a piano
motif and lone vocals from Andreas which then build with orchestration and
clean guitar – here the production really shines – the track then kicks in
with a mix between the sound the band have now established on
AGH as
well as with traces (albeit in a heavier guise) of the previous album
“Walking On H2O”. Around the 2:30 mark the tracks moves up another gear
with another great feel where guitars, bass and orchestration combine
superbly allowing Andreas’ vocals to soar to even greater highs. “Skin
Crawl” has more movie effect intro’s before slipping into a deeply
addictive groove over which Novak sings the lyrics with a glorious
venomous spite. Another highly addictive chorus leads up back into the
kicking verse rhythm. The tracks key to its success in its perfect mix of
melody and musicality.
“Graveyard Hands” sees a Celtic influence enter the musical format. The tempo is more
mid-tempo than the majority of the material on offer and gives the
listener a chance to reflect on what has taken place before and gear up
for the finale of “Say Goodnight” and the 10 minute epic
“Pandora’s Musical Box”. The former is another turbo charged riffer
with eerie keyboard effects which is probably my least favourite track on
the album sounding a little disjointed when compared to the other tracks,
yet given a few spins shows itself to be a interesting composition in
itself with a strong chorus. Album closer “Pandora’s Musical Box”
is a superb closer to the album with a very modern feel yet with a strong
progressive framework which harks back in places to the bands sound heard
on the “Waiting For The Tide” album yet with the new found heavier
delivery. The band seemingly having saved their most expansive
instrumental sections until last where the interplay between guitars,
drums and keyboards is highly impressive yet coherent maintaining a sense
of direction and purpose. The final 2 minutes of the track return to the
film score and dialogue as heard on the opening cut giving a strong sense
of closure to the story line with Adam Evangelista taking his final
revenge.
As if the album wasn't enough the bonus
"Making Of A Gentleman" DVD is a superb insight into the making of
the album, showing that band mainly work in a jamming sense. The
feel very much is live and for the moment and with the addition of the
"Feed My Revolver" video (which looks stunning in uncompressed format) and
an insight into the making of the video makes this one DVD you will be
revisiting again and again. The accompanying inlay booklet/comic
book is visually stunning with superb artwork by Mattias Nóren along with
full album lyrics. The vision shown in the triple pack is only to be
applauded.
As you may have gathered “A Gentleman’s
Hurricane” is in my opinion destined to be considered a true classic of the progressive
genre. What Mind’s Eye have delivered has not only exceeded my
expectations but also raised the bar of what can be done in this musical
field. Being a perfect marriage of music and film influences the album is
not only interesting in its plot development but also breadth of musical
skill and delivery. The trio of Andreas Novak, Johan Niemann and Daniel
Flores deserve to be at the very top of the genre with a reputation that
should see them talked about in the same circles as the genre’s biggest
sellers for this album slays the competition. Album of 2007? I cannot
see anything surpassing this for many years to come; in one word –
Essential.
Rating
- 100%
Web
Links
http://www.roundrec.com
http://www.myspace.com/eyeofthemind
