The fourth and brand new album Walking On A Flashlight Beam from Lunatic Soul starts with sea waves and industrial sounds in a dark atmosphere. It feels like having a bad dream with cold sweat as a result. Or like stepping into unknown territory. And that is what Mariusz Duda, the magician of his own musical fantasy world, is trying do with you. Creating dark and intense compositions. He is also one of the creative figures of the Polish prog rockers Riverside. He is the multi instrumental guy and the lead singer as well. After four minutes your adventure is changed into a kind of moon-walk on a unknown planet. The unintelligible lyrics reinforce it even more mysteriously. After almost nine minutes the silence has returned again. Shutting Out The Sun has come to an end. The second song Cold has a more traditional approach. You can compare it with the better songs of Anathema and Opeth. In the second part of the song the pace is pretty screwed. In the third song Gutter you are soon drawn into an exciting world. What is striking is the high falsetto of Mariusz. It sounds like a prog version of the Norwegian hit wonder A-ha. Mariusz is also a brilliant bass player as you can discover on this song. The main role in Stars Sellotaped is for Maciej Szelenbaum who touches the keys very sensibly. It is a pity that there is not much variation on The Fear Within. In addition to the pulsating rhythms not much happens during the seven minutes the song lasts. Fortunately the next song Treehouse is again of a very high level. I enjoyed the wonderful drumming of Wawrzyniec Dramowicz a lot. On the longest song (12 minutes) Pygmalion's Ladder you will be dragged into an oriental atmosphere. The musicians of Lunatic Soul know how to create a mystical landscape with desperate lyrics about love, fatalism, tears and guilt. After five minutes of mental torment there is an electric guitar solo to cheer you up. But not for long. The despair has the upper hand again. The Glockenspiel ending is a brilliant idea. And the amplified echo sound in Sky Drawn In Canyon is another example of the superb production of Walking On A Flashlight Beam. The plucking sound of the acoustic guitar sucks you into a strange sinister world. Even the last song, the title track of the album, adds some new ideas. For me it was the perfect ending of a magnificent album. It completed the circle of nine excellent songs. ****+ Cor Smeets (edited by Astrid de Ronde) Where to buy? |
