After a fair few thrash and death metal releases, it’s often quite refreshing to go to the opposite end of the intricate and complex spectrum in terms of composition and delivery. Yes, I’m talking about Prog Metal and no, it’s not the new Dream Theater one either, 34 track concept album… Even that is too much for me to sit down and analyse in my usual manner!
Formed in 2006 in Sweden, The New Keepers Of The Water Tower (now referred to as Keepers) have a rather unique approach to the progressive side of rock and metal. They’re up to album number four with this release and there has been some praise for their sound, with people and PR likening them to the 70’s prog approach of Pink Floyd, mixed with the grit and darkness of Alice In Chains and Mastodon. All I can say is, let’s see if this machine is running fine or whether it needs tuning up a bit.
From the off, you can tell this is a band who are confident in their sound and their delivery. The opening track, “The Forever War” is an 11 minute epic and to start off with something like that takes confidence. It’s a very surreal and grandiose sounding track, very atmospheric with the pace and intensity of its delivery very tightly regulated to give it maximum effect in its reception. The instruments are prominent yet minimalistic in their delivery, the synth and samples and ambience taking up the majority of the song with very hypnotic, effects laden vocals casting a spell and surprisingly, it doesn’t feel like eleven minutes. It feels a lot longer as it seamlessly blends into the following track, “Tracks Over Carcosa” which keeps this spaced out trance like sound going until it suddenly breaks, going into more 70’s psych territory with a subtle shift which begins at the one minute mark but takes up until the two minute mark to be really noticeable. As this shift happens, the previous style slowly begins to drift in this instrumental track which really just feels like a refrain of the opener.
“Tachyon Deep” flows perfectly from Carcosa’s slowed down surreal outro, maintaining the continuous feel of the album so far and it really does feel like this album is something you have to listen to in one go, you cannot simply listen to the occasional track at times or you might not quite get it. The vocals begin just at the end of Carcosa and you can tell where the Alice in Chains tag comes from as it does have that slight haunting feel which Jerry and Layne were so good with. Faster moving with a real sense of urgency and spiralling out of control in terms of the sound, this track has more life to it. Most people might lose interest by this point and I can see why as it is rather hard to keep track or find bits which really grab the attention. It is a rather immersive track though like the rest of the album has been so far and the dynamics, especially the intricate layering and volume play do make it sound a lot bigger than it is.
“Misanthropin Kallar” comes in after a tiny lull in sound but still keeps the continual theme going and this one has a darker tone to it. Almost like it is a premonition of something to come, the foreboding feel emanating from the slow paced building delivery is delivered great but this short lived instrumental number’s only pay off is setting the scene for “Escape Aleph Minor” which continues the ominous feel, adding warning sirens in the background to further hype the oncoming result of the build. With vocals coming back in gradually and a slow building lead, it’s not quite the dramatic pay off expected which is a shame and it doesn’t ‘pay off’ later in the track either, repeating a similar trick to the previous ones where the subsequent track seemingly begins in the final third of the current track.
“Jorden” breaks the continuous feel as the previous track fades out to silence, but it comes back sounding rather familiar to a lot of the previous tracks on the record and again, it is predominantly instrumental and merely serves as the build up for the closing track, “This Infernal War”. Like everything before it, this track is more grandiose build up with minimalistic input vocally, seeming to lean towards the dramatic soundscape which has been carved out for this albums duration and whilst this shows consistency with delivery, it just lacks a real spark. Even when it gets louder and more intense in its delivery near the 6 minute mark, it just lacks that killer hook or punch to really draw you in, which ultimately is a disappointing end to what at first glance seemed like a promising album but realistically was further from promising than many people believe it is.
Overall, whilst ambitious and clearly confident in their ability to create immersive and explorative music, Keepers have created something you wouldn’t want to keep. It’s immersive and has some great dynamics and structures, but it just lacks anything of interest to hold on to or to get excited about. With prog, you toe the line of pretentious but enjoyable or entertaining… Or pretentious and self indulgent… This is more the latter. It’s not worth keeping and the machine is clearly jammed up somewhere.
(3/10 Fraggle)
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