Distorted Harmony ~ Utopia (album review) ... Welcome to this dream!

Style: progressive, heavy metal
Label: self-released
Year: 2012
Home: Tel Aviv, Israel

Members: Misha Soukhinin ~ vocals
Guy Landau ~ guitars
Yoav Efron ~ keyboards
Iggy Jalapeno ~ bass
Yogev Gabay ~ drums

Additional: Daniel Markovich ~ saxophone

Israel's DH have churned out a prog-metal album that opens with the mysteriously titled "Kono Yume", until one finds out it means "This Dream" in Japanese. But, with the other songs being "Breathe", "Obsession", "Blue", "Unfair" & "Utopia" there is a bit of mystery to the surroundings & DH are certainly looking to create a dreamy ride. "Kono Yume" opens with acoustic piano arpeggios soon joined by contrasting soft strings light in the mix before guitars chime in making a symphonic crescendo, then it all turns into more traditional sounding riffing & soloing leading back into moments of piano & acoustic guitar as a light voice whispers in. "Kono Yume" is an eight minute technical powerhouse opening that casually moves from bit to bit with just enough repetition so it all gels together as a single unit yet still crosses both soft & heavy moments with equal skill. Actually, it's impossible to describe the sound of DH, as its really impossible to describe prog-rock whatever the band, but those who know the career of vocalist Lana Lane or her keyboard playing spouse Erik Norlander will find similarities in arrangements & flow. Though some might also call up the heavier end of the prog spectrum via Ayreon. There's also hints of Dream Theater but without the overly indulgent instrumental parts. This firmly sits in the modern age of prog-metal. The five tracks that follow follow the same instrumentation of acoustic & electric guitars & pianos with symphonic backgrounds that do have similarities but also their own individual twists. "Breathe" is a diving guitar rocker that even includes a heavy bass solo that turns into a guitar minefield, literally it sounds like a soldier running through a minefield like in a movie where one knows the soldier will be safe but the explosions are going off every second. DH constructs a sound that is aiming for the same thing prog forefathers Yes aimed for - sound like an orchestra but without the strings. Yes, the guitars may riff & solo but the end result is something where the whole is supposed to be stronger than the pieces. With all but one song lasting an average of eight minutes this might technically be an EP based on song count but its far from being short on music. The title track is over twelve minutes. It doesn't feel like all the songs are eight minutes on their own, but taken in a single listen the songs aren't always distinctive enough & do blend into each other making it feel the hour plus that it is. Some shorter songs would be a nice break from the length & give the individuality back that's lost in a straight through listen. There's a delightful inclusion of a saxophone in "Unfair" which might be a rarity in a prog-rock song. Sadly, one of the reasons the songs lose their individuality in a full listen is because all the songs come to feel like they're in the same mood. There's a general emotional seriousness with an under-developed emotional palette. After numerous listens I found it a bit of a struggle to connect with the album on an emotional level as its a bit of a serious affair.

Acrassicauda ~ Only The Dead See The End Of The War (EP) (album review) ... Heavy metal in Baghdad!

Style: thrash, heavy metal
Label: Vice Records
Year: 2010
Home: Baghdad, Iraq

Members: Faisal Talal Mustafa ~ vocals/rhythm guitar
Tony Aziz Yaqoo ~ lead guitar
Firas Al-Lateef ~ bass
Marwan Hussain Riyadh ~ drums

Immediately the ears are bombarded with a fierce thrash attack that jumps right out of the door with distorted guitars, fast solos & an incredibly heavy rhythm section behind it all. Its in additional listens that one really picks up on the attractiveness of the choppy rhythms that bring early Soundgarden to mind. Though, listeners expecting something musically different than the normal thrash because of the country of origin will largely be disappointed outside of a little glimmer of bongos & religious cries at the end of "Garden Of Stones". This is metal right out of the American mold with essentially little variation, the lyrics are even in English except for a spoken word introduction in "Massacre", demonstrating the international influence of thrash for those that might think otherwise of this metal sub-division. But, this isn't any old band imitating American thrash but the first heavy metal group to emerge from Iraq, formed under the regime of Saddam Hussein. To stay somewhat unmolested they even wrote a song praising Saddam ... which the lyrics to this American produced album show was only a PR move, to put it lightly. Though, for whatever good it did they not just adopted the American metal sound but also the reputation receiving death threats from Islamic militants who thought they worshipped Satan. Today the members of the band are refugees in the U.S. having been driven from their homeland, plus Syria & Turkey. Formed in 2001 this EP is essentially their debut as previous releases were no more than demos unofficial in glimmers were the law allowed ... such as being featured in the ground-breaking movie Heavy Metal In Baghdad. After the film their music was found attractive enough by Testament/Savatage/Trans-Siberian Orchestra guitarist Alex Skolnick to offer his services as their producer. A minor problem with this release is that one really wants to hear the lyrics knowing that however typical metal they may sound there's real messages of personal torment & strife below the clichés. The opening track "Message From Baghdad" features the least interesting & most difficult to discern singing of the four tracks, though it also features some of the heaviest & choppiest riffs. Things get more clear in the following songs where lines like "They've got the power to control my fate/I'd rather die then disintegrate ... just set me free & let me breathe" from "Message", with an echo-filled guitar solo that sounds influenced by Alex Skolnick's style & an attractive duel vocal style, are anything but cliched lines. A real highlight of the album is the six minute "The Unknown" that closes the album with the fastest & wildest riffs, & most Soundgarden-like, with its cries of "living in a world of hate" & a hypnotic flavor under all of it.

Salim Ghazi Saeedi ~ Iconophobic (album review) ... The composer's laughter!

Style: progressive rock, avant garde, instrumental
Label: self-released
Year: 2010
Home: Tehran, Iran

Members: Salim Ghazi Saeedi ~ guitars/keyboards/percussion/sound effects

I won't lie & say that when Salim Ghazi Saeedi's music came to me I was immediately intrigued because I never get any submissions from Iran & I'm like many others in the world who have heard about the influence that rock music has on people, in an almost mystical way, in the Middle East who suffer under musical & cultural censorship. Luckily SGS's music held up to my microscope being interesting & unique & I was happy to request a promo copy of Iconophobic, his debut solo release following three albums with his prog-rock band Arashk. This collection of thirteen original instrumentals, combining only guitar, keyboards & some occasional sound effects, has been compared to King Crimson guitarist/frontman Robert Fripp & the comparison is not for nothing ... though John Zorn's movie soundtracks works as a better comparison to my ears. SGS largely aims not for the standard approach to melodic guitar instrumental songs with riffs, layers & distorted solos, though they do make an appearance (for example "Asiyeh" & "Give My Childhood Back") but more for a meandering journey of guitar-focused instrumental landscapes that are anything but riffs & include symphonic violin-sounding keyboards, acoustic piano, light percussion & hand clapping. It's as if he walked through his town in Iran & make songs up based on what he was seeing, which might not be so far from reality. There's overly dark songs such as "The Songful Song Of The Songbirds" which is a representation of iconophobia itself or the hatred and/or fear of religious art that are digging into the uncensored alleys of the city, while the opening "Composer's Laughter" with its synthesized orchestra background is indeed an autobiographical meeting of personal demons with loving laughter, to the whimsical "Don't You See The Cheerful Rainbow" that's reminiscent of kids playing in a park with no worries. There's a level of improvisational feeling here as though SGS is allowing the city to take him where it musically will. Though, this is a concept album eliciting a psychological story of alienation so the city is a muse not a controlling entity. To this end SGS doesn't limit himself to songs that feature a repeating steady drumbeat in 2/4, verse/chorus/verse/chorus format or even a typical rhythm-melody-harmony relationship. He lets the soundscape travel where it will to go with delightful originality as the scenes in his iconophobic movie progress ... as if this really is a soundtrack. Movies don't have characters repeating the same lines & actions over & over so why should the music do that?