Ather having listened to "Aeon / Leviathan", it is with a mixture of anticipation and fear that I approach this other release by syn.terra.
The opening track, suggestively titled "The Skeletal Mixup" is almost funky, we found the delightfully haunting horns, which duet (or duel?) with the shredding guitars. The jazzy harmonies are sometimes dissonant but never unpleasant, and the tracks fill the listener with urgency and curiosity.
We slow down for "Cypress Tongue Blues", the piano leading us through the maze traced by the echoes of an electric guitar, while our steps can't help following the swing of the drums. Soon the guitar becomes the protagonist, fuzzy and reverbered, and then it starts trading licks with the piano, and we are taken in the crossfire, helpless and incapable of turning away from such a display of power.
"Queen of the worms" open with an ominous bassline and tribal percussion. The lead synth and the guitars soon come back to reclaim the spotlight, with some intrusions of an organ that gives an always welcomed Deep Purple/Uriah Heep flavour. As I have previously written for the "Chemical Witch", we are not sure whether the Queen of Worms is a friend or a foe, but we can confidently assume she has great music taste. I found this track overall less chaotic than the rest, but that doesn't mean it lacks energy or interesting ideas. I was definitley hooked from start to finish.
The organ also opens the hostilities in the last piece, "Reservoir Vermillion", and once again I hear echoes of the late Jon Lord, Early Whitesnake and Rainbow. I don't know if these bands have had any influence on this project but I can't help making this association. The bassline is also impressive, always present and incisive but never reduntant or invasive.
In the end, the trip is once again exciting, less oppressive that "Leviathan", but maybe a bit more colourful. Both of them hughly recommended.
