DISCIPLINE. - To Shatter All Accord

Kategorie: CD-Reviews | Genre: Prog | Heft: Jahrgang 2012, eclipsed Nr. 137 / 2-2012 | VÖ-Jahr: 2012 | Wertung: 9/10 | Label: Strung Out | Autor: AS


Look, the occasional festival appearances of the formation around Matthew Parmenter in recent years have been something of a harbinger of new brilliance, even if nobody really wanted to believe in it. 14 years after "Unfolded Like Staircase" the quartet presents their third studio album with the dot behind their name. And it sounds like those 5,000 days were just a flap of wings. Parmenter (voc, keys), Jon Preston Bouda (g), Mathew Kennedy (b) and Paul Dzendzel (dr/perc) convince once again with exquisitely composed, dark retroprog, which is more elegant than the output of Beardfish and more exciting than that of Wobbler. And still offers graceful reminiscences of Van der Graaf Generator. Best example: "When She Dreams She Dreams In Color", in which Parmenter pays tribute to the singing of Peter Hammills and which leads into wonderful mellotron and violin solos. The band presented the first two tracks already in 1995 at their concert at the "ProgDay": the unusually rough "Circuitry", which reminds of Golden Earring with its bass-/guitar riff, and then with sax, a lot of theatricality and instrumental activity to recall the spirit of Van der Graaf; and the also quite hard rocking, psychedelic "When The Walls Are Down". The rhythmically perfidious "Dead City" inspires with an outstanding interplay of guitar and violin. With the two concluding longtracks Discipline. demonstrate once again their feeling for great gestures, dynamic arrangements and harmonious song constructions full of hymnal, orchestral and bombastic moments including expressive vocal and virtuoso instrumental passages. It remains to be hoped that this speechless group will make use of its creative potential and will soon record further material.

Top track: Rogue

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