I'll start with describing my expectations and initial situation, with the zoom I went to the album:
I knew Porcupine Tree for two years and have chosen this to one of my most treasured bands. Stevens solo project I have learned to love properly in summer 2011.
Opeth I met really only in the last months. I had previously been put off by Mikael growls and it gave me just do not like. However, I am increasingly penetrated in recent months in the 'matter Opeth' and can now both their very early, and the most recent works estimate.
So what I now expected from the collaboration of the two masterminds of their respective band? I did not know exactly. I have counted towards the traditional prog rock, and also Stevens slope to previous styles, with a prog rock album due to the latest development in home Opeth. Not too hard, but no music, which is deprived of any rock elements.
Finally, the song 'Drag Ropes' with the associated video was made public in advance. I have that title belongs directly under headphones and followed with amazement as my expectations were neither GE nor untertroffen. It was something with which I did not expect, or even something that I have not heard in the form. It is a modern symphony, a opereskes play - and still mixed with elements of prog and rock.
Well I thought, it's only a piece, the rest of the album is certainly not sound exactly. What I was not mistaken. But as I had imagined, the rest of the album is not.
So how is now this album? It's quiet, it's threatening and at the same time beautiful, it attracts a, just as a locally deters. Among the titles:
01. Drag Ropes
A very dark piece that then leads a right, where the album will go: It's different. It is directly thrown into this brilliant atmosphere, Mikael singing is equally soft as unterschwällig threatening. The polyphonic Parts bind to the wonderful music (climax here already in the canon and fugue-like part). The "outbreak" as such can wait in vain for himself. For some, this means that the song "flows in front of him, without great moments". For me, this means that the song in itself is very closed and the missing "outbreak" is seen more positive than negative - because such would destroy the overall atmosphere, which is created in such a way.
02. Storm Corrosion
So, 10 minutes rum. As it may go further? It is quietly joined in the title track, a wonderful melody leaves the listener has a dream. The melody in the "Chorus" (when the songs still can be divided into those terms) shall be catchy and brings a very melancholic, but still beautiful atmosphere with it. A dark part with weeping, to screeching tones evolving strings interrupts the dream, but returned skillfully, and before you know it, you stand at the end of 10 minutes ballad. Great.
03. Hag
Go on! It is also truly bleak in the realm of 'Storm Corrosion'. A very unusual melody lines up on the other, the rhythm is equally adrift, like tugging. Little by little, this track opens up to me today, piece by piece - but the magic underlying I erkante immediately. Here comes at a moment of hardship, when an electronically strongly distorted riff with a dull drum solo breaks the calm mood.
04. Happy
Happy! A happy moment. Or not? No. It remains grim or sad, you sink deeper and deeper into the maelstrom, the 'Storm Corrosion' generated. Again resound wonderful melodies, which are classified in no real musical genre. It is thus far unusual, yet it enchants me, no longer lets go of me and shows me more and more of its secrets. This all sounds very lifted, but that is exactly what the music of Storm Corrosion created - at least in me.
05. Luck Howl
An instrumental track! A driving acoustic guitar takes us through the song, the ausschreitet in great harmonies and a lot of room for improvisation. Power each time fun to hear and blends perfectly into the generated up to this point scheme.
06. Ljudet Innan
And here we are at the end. And it is again really dreamy. Mikael's beautiful falsetto blends so perfectly with the musical setting one, as if he had never done anything else. Who would guess that this man, who presented his voice so soft here, the next moment again on stage and brings the exact opposite of days? Rarely has one seen such a talent who has mastered both guttural, as well as normal singing in such perfect shape. The song remains very quiet, later Gavin Harrison put drums in his usual form and the title leads a very gentle addition of a yet very unusual album.
So. Now through the album and I'm sitting here with my headphones. I sit in silence and think, let reverberate just heard. Without further ado, I play the whole thing from the beginning.
Conclusion:
It's an album that has not been given in the form. Anyone with any expectations, is if he sticks to them, disappointed. But who can drop his expectations, who can get involved in something new, something extraordinary, is in good hands with this plant. It has with Porcupine Tree as little - and just as much in common as with Steven Wilson and Opeth. It is an independent work that the handwriting of its creator carries. They can be recognized - and not again. Me anyway has this album - this masterpiece in my eyes - packed, and it no longer lets me go. Each hearing makes me anew melt away - and I discover with each listen new facets.
A difficult but ingenious piece of music that no one should miss, who is interested in music that creates something new.
