Before I made this decision, I did have a few songs on my Spotify playlist that I did want to talk about, as they are curious handful of prog rock songs. "Wassail" by Big Big Train has this interesting folky vibe that really taps into a sense of ancient traditions that makes the song quite memorable. "Codpieces and Capes" by The Tangent is a quirky homage and satire of the classic 70s prog rock bands. And then there's "The Call" by The Neal Morse Band, which really has some neat mood shifts and builds to a great conclusion. I remember stumbling across these on a "Best of" list by the Prog Report. You'll probably see a few others on there that made it to my Spotify playlist. I also added a few tracks from Disturbed's album, particularly their renowned cover of "The Sound of Silence."
Well, that's that. Here's some reviews!
Visigoth is another band I've seen around, hearing bits and pieces over the past few years, but I've never sat down with one of their albums until now. They're very much in the vein of classic epic metal and US power metal. Drawing upon the heritage of bands like Manilla Road and Omen, and adding in a healthy dose of role-playing games, both video and tabletop, this band is about taking listeners to fantastic lands, and sounding big in the process.
Right off the bat, the guitar tone is massive, like they took Candlemass's tone and tightened it up a little without losing any of it's power. And then Jake Rogers' vocals come in. He's a great vocalist who really projects, giving authority to whatever he's singing, holding those notes out with power. Together, the result is a massive wall of sound that perfectly balances epicness and grittiness. Despite these long song-lengths, the time just blasts on by, filled with great vocal melodies and well-played solos.
They do mix it up here and there, with songs often shifting tone and tempo. "Mammoth Rider" in particular has both a fast, shred-friendly part followed by a straight-up doom metal section, all held together by the atmosphere they build. Other highlights include "Dungeon Master," straight from Dungeon & Dragons; "Iron Brotherhood," a great anthem to metal music and its community, "Vengeance," a classic tale of tragedy and triumph, and "Creature of Desire," an ode to riding fast on a motorcyle. Honestly, this album is great, with tons of crunchy riffs, noodly solos, and catchy lyrics. Fans of old-school metal will found a lot to like, if they haven't found it already. Epicness from start to finish.
So after Jani Liimatainen left Sonata Arctica, Cain's Offering was one of first things he put together, working with Timo Kotipelto of Stratovarius. The result was Gather the Faithful, a very solid power metal album that felt very much Jani's former band. Years pass, and they decide to put together another one, this time recruiting Jens Johansson, also of Stratovarius, and the result is another great power metal album!
While the addition of Johansson definitely gives this album much more of a Stratovarius flavor (you'll hear that harpsicord from "Black Diamond" more than once on here), the big difference from the first album is the orchestrations. The first album was certainly powerful and epic, but this reaches to Nightwish or Rhapsody of Fire levels of symphonic arrangement, as the layers add so much more to the melodrama of the album. And melodrama is very much the order of the day, as the lyrics deal much with relationships and feelings, but not necessarily in a bad way. Even "I Will Build You A Rome" gets pretty sappy, but I'm not ashamed to admit I rather liked it that way.
As for the music, it's great stuff. While not every song is amazing, a lot of it is, with tracks like "Constellation of Tears," "The Best of Times," "Stormcrow," and the bonus track "Child of the Wild" providing excellent power metal. Even the instrumental "I Am Legion" is incredibly epic. Kotipelto is top notch, Johansson displays his excellent fingerwork, and Liimatainen is not slouch either. Power metal fans would be foolish to ignore this one (like I did for five years!!).
Fans of Yes may know Billy Sherwood as the current bassist for the prog rock group, but his history with Yes goes much further back, assisting with the Union album and YesYears compilation, and later helping the band with their Talk tour. He and Chris Squire then began writing material that would result in their next album Open Your Eyes. While it didn't sell well or please the fans or win any awards, it's always been a fond favorite of mine. Billy would go on to help write The Ladder, go on to make several tribute albums, working with all kinds of musicians, before being brought back to Yes to play bass in place of an ailing Squire, who would pass on shortly thereafter.
I bring all this up as I think it helps contextualize my feelings on this album. I admit I haven't gotten into Sherwood's solo stuff much, so when I decided to make his 2015 effort the third album I review for this anniversary article, I could tell right off that this sounds a whole lot like his work on the Open Your Eyes album. I'm not sure if I can quite define what those qualities are, maybe something with the production, the songwriting, or the vocal harmonies (or all three!), but he has a very distinct style that I just don't hear from anyone else. Still, it's a style I like, and I hear it in spades here, so I'm already on board from the start.
Context aside, what we have here is a slightly proggy melodic rock album with the concept of a soul (the titular "citizen") being reincarnated throughout humanity's history, allowing Sherwood to write songs about various historical moments and people. Another feature of the album is the bevy of guest artists. Not only do we get tons of Yesfolk appearing (notably one of Chris Squire's last recordings is on the first track), but also the likes of Steve Hackett, Jordan Rudess, John Wesley, and Steve Morse. Even Alan Parsons comes on to sing a track for this.
My overall opinion? Decent. Some of the songs maybe run a little too long, and it's definitely more musically dense and complex than OYE was, but that might be a consequence of the number of guest artists on here. However, I do hear plenty of the things I like about Billy Sherwood's style, so I'll have to listen to it more to unpack it more. This one could grow on me.
