epysode obessions

Released: 26 August 2011 Label: AFM

When Epysode's Obsessions album arrived accompanied with not just a press release but also an extensive cast list, and a concept-story synopsis, I approached it with trepidation. A prog metal album I could handle, but a prog metal *concept* album? I remember the 70s! Would I be battered over the head with endless displays of keyboard widdle and guitar wank of appallingly pretentious proportions?

But after listening for a couple of minutes, I realised that my initial reservations couldn't have been more wrong!

This album is simply masterful. I was blown away by the elegant mix of brutal low-register guitar riffs, and soaring vocal combinations. I won't spoil the story suffice to say that it's an X-Files type investigative-murder–mystery-ghost-story-sort-of-thing, but the emphasis here is on very strong melodic songs, with a hard metal edge, rather than extended passages of musical indulgence.

It is the brainchild of Samuel Arkan, guitarist from Belgium rockers Virus IV. He handles all the chugging duties here, leaving the solos to guest guitarist Christophe Godin of Gnô, and the virtuoso keyboards to Julein Spreutels of Ethernity.

After a scene-setting atmospheric opener, the story begins in a minor-key piano refrain that gives way to a gentle acoustic number sung by Liselotte Helgt from the bands Ayreon, Dial, and Valentine playing the role of a medium in the story, and I have to say she has a fantastic voice!

The first full-on song, appropriately called First Blood, erupts from this gentle intro, and sets the pattern to come. Down-tuned stop-start chugging riffs that bludgeon, with impressively expansive choruses. Keyboards and vocal melodies provide the technical intricacies, while the stylish solos are tastefully restrained.

The title track Obsessions is a brisker, upbeat, power metal workout, and the vocal interplay between the characters is brilliant, with Kelly Sundown's power metal snarl, combining with Magali Luyten's lush tones. The chorus is again epic and sweeping.

Invisible Nations is a stand-out cut chock full of head-nod riffage, and surprisingly a main theme that owes more to the rhythmic dynamics of dance music than metal, but it works brilliantly, with the heavy guitars and soaring female vocals. The keyboard solo is effortlessly astonishing too, with cascading arpeggios aplenty, and it's almost a pity that it doesn't stick around too long to become indulgent!

Gemini Syndrome is an outstanding piano song featuring a duet between the two lead characters, composed by Julein Spreutels, it's a simply astonishing vocal tour-de-force and adds an entirely different layer of musical dynamics to the album. Not often do I go for the softer tunes, but this is excellent stuff.

Fallen's Portrait and Season of Redemption, are both fairly heavy mid paced tunes, with memorable choruses. The Shadow Lord gets things livened up again and Divine Whispers, is a bouncy, heavy track with female vocals to the fore, and with a simply brilliant and uplifting choral refrain. Powerful stuff indeed!

One Chance is a prog-metal riff fest, with an excellent chorus.

March of the Ghosts is pretty much the album climax, where the storyline explodes into dramatic earth-shattering revelations, boasting cinematic musical sweep, huge expansive chords and musical dexterity aplenty, as it leaps from acoustic folk to a brutal metal wall of noise. Again the vocal melodies are fantastic, the hooks catching you instantly, while the majestically powerful sweep of the music drives the dynamic of the story.

The final track is an epilogue in narrative terms, Last Sunset, which again features dramatic musical shifts and a satisfying, if melancholic, almost cathartic close to the storyline. The Hammond keys from Tommy Hansen, reminded me of Goblin, the Italian prog-meisters best known for their Dario Argento horror soundtracks.

It's not often on a metal album, that I would say the standout qualities are the female vocalists and the keyboard solos, but this is the case here. Don't let this put you off for a moment though, thankfully, it is still very much a powerful METAL album as the guitars are fittingly heavy, and the production sounds immense, but I have to give credit to some virtuoso keyboard lead breaks, and the gorgeous vocal performances. Head and shoulders above almost any new music I've heard in the metal genre for a long time!

Obsessions hangs together brilliantly well as a sinlge entity, being a sprawling sixty-four minute eclectic piece of work, cinematic and powerful in scope, but with songs so strong that they work entirely separately to the story around them.

Epysode's debut might be a tad pretentious or dare I say even highbrow for some, but this is a pretty spectacular album, perfectly combining melody with heaviness, with some absolutely astonishing vocal performances and is well worth a look if you fancy a bit of imagination, melody and musical depth, to go along with your brutal guitar fix.

In a word: fantastic!

by Steven Hargraves