BLIND EGO-Liquid
Gentle Art Of Music
Blind Ego is the solo project of RPWL’s guitar player Kalle Wallner and with `Liquid’ he releases his 3rd album in succession. Where its predecessor `Numb’ and the 2007 release `Mirror’ already showed the song writing finesse of Wallner, on the new album his music sounds more lucid and he managed to liquefy his vision into a swirling blend of mind boggling progressive melodic prog tunes which tend to nest in ones head upon the first listen. Each and every song on this respected new effort is of an exceptional high quality with melodies that are sticky as they are appealing, distracting from the progressive and stubborn nature of the tracks. A lot is going on musically without ever drifting from the strong melodic aspect that is deeply embedded into the music. Breaks pop up in the best progressive tradition, but always add a little poise to the exceptional fine tuned melodies. Every note is spot on and the emotion within is of a pure and intense perfection. Adding to this musical craftsmanship is the warm, slightly raspy voice of Erik Ez Blomkvist (Seven Thorns), the pristine voice of Arno Menses (Subsignal) and Aaron Brooks who colour the melodies with keenly picked lyrics. ,,A Place In The Sun’’ bears all elements of greatness with modern keyboard loops and progressive powerful riffs. It perfectly matches the tremendous passion of Wallner’s playing who spits fire occasionally. The chorus is sticky sweet but the power is jaw dropping. The song simply blooms with every spin, exactly as intended. ,,Blackened’’ perhaps is one of the strongest compositions this year. The chorus is ear mingling without ever losing its power to capture your imagination. Kalle keeps you on the edge of your seat as he takes you under his wings for this musical journey. Unlike many of his fellow musicians releasing a solo album, Wallner manages to maintain a band approach that makes the album more consistent than others. Three vocalists perfectly aligned in range as focal point and melodic which seems a trademark of his sound. As a guitar player Wallner seems to have grown and his unmistakable fine sound is unmatched. Some of his guitar solos are simply jaw dropping beautiful and are composed to match the emotion and feel of the song at hand. Powerful outbursts like the opening track we find in the powerful ,,What If’’, the driven ,,Tears And Laughter’’ and the high paced ,,Hear My Voice Out There’’. More progressive and symphonic he blooms in the 7+ minute epic ,,Not Going Away’’ and the highly cinematic 8 minute ,,Never Escape The Storm’’ that bears similarity to bands such as Dream Theater and the modern Pendragon. Progressive in the very grain of the track, but also powerful and driven with top notch melodies. Absolutely wonderful is the grand finale ,,Speak The Truth’’ with its pompous undertone and powerful melody. Going all shreddy Kalle shows his amazing skills in the instrumental ,,Quiet Anger’’ that is bold and packed with temperament. Throbbing bass and drums paving the way for waves of Satch-ish riff guitar exercises and sometimes squeaky Vai pitches all in the best MacAlpine manner. Focussing on the structure of the song rather than go into a bliss of jam shreds. `Liquid’ is an album that will attract attention from a wide range of music fanatics. Listening to one track will surely make you want to hear this magnificent album in its entire. It’s simply to good to pass us by unnoticed. Must hear!
Comments