Flaming Row are back after a hiatus of six years. Keeper Of The Scriptures is the fourth album in their history, that started in 2011 with their debut album Elinoire (2011, see review), followed by Mirage - A Portrayal Of Figures (2014, see review) and another time followed by The Pure Shine (2019, see review). I read all three reviews and got the idea that Flaming Row are something special to listen to. In the first fifteen years of their career the only change in line up was with the third album where Melanie Mau took over the female vocals of Kiri Geile. The band further consists of bandleader and multi-instrumentalist Martin Schnella who plays guitars, bass and vocals, Niklas Kahl on drums and Marek Arnold on keyboards and saxophone. A trademark of this band is that they have many people from the prog scene contribute to this album. Precisely because of this fact I can already reveal that it is an extremely varied album that shows many sides of the musical spectrum. In the review I will regularly indicate who plays which solo or who is the singer. And how good all bandmembers can play their instruments, they are replaced regularly by others who are 'better' on that moment. I appreciate that a lot, step away if there are so called better persons. That only deserves a bow, wow! When I read the before mentioned reviews I can see that this music is all prog metal adventures that are based on books and self-made stories of Martin and Melanie. Instrumentally it is a potpourri of styles and has a range from easy listening music to heavy prog metal with some trips to music with violins, harp and other classical arrangements. So, my attention has been drawn because I really like prog metal concept albums. And as you can read in the booklet, this is a progressive metal opera by Melanie Mau and Martin Schnella... based on a novel by Christian Dolle. Christian Dolle was asked to write this story, especially for this project. For the best experience you can put your headphones on and have the textbook in your hands so you can follow the story. I will not tell that much about the story; you may find out by yourself. All I can say is that it is a story between good and bad, maybe that is not that original, but if I am honest, that is totally okay for me. As with many concept albums, the opening track, Ghandara's Legacy, has a quiet beginning that quickly becomes bombastic. When we get a little further into this song, the bombasticness decreases and there is plenty of room for the narrator to introduce you to the story. The narration is supported with calm music. The Mesh is the longest track on the album. The sounds start easy again but then swallow to big and bigger, guitars enter and they are the boss in this episode, but don't get used to it, because then the drums have to be the boss for a while. It all sounds like metal with heavy guitars and now and then double bass drums. In a couple of parts, it all sounds a bit eastern. Besides heavy parts you can hear saxophone too. There are duets as well as duels between the vocalists. It all belongs to the story. After a minute or eight you can hear a nice guitar solo, played by Martin Schnella. Sometime later another saxophone solo can be heard, after which the guitar has another solo, this time played by Mike Keneally (Mike Keneally Band). Towards the end of the solo, you might think you are listening to John Petrucci of Dream Theater, so many notes will pass, great to hear! But it is not John Petrucci but Johan Hallgren, who played in Pain Of Salvation. Also, towards the end the male vocalist, Glynn Morgan of Threshold, sings that it is an unequal battle going on. His performance on the album is suburb. You can feel the fear in the story in how the instruments are played. Overall, this is a powerful song, prog metal at its best. Really varied. Not a dull moment. An Invisible Bond starts with piano combined with beautiful sax played by Marek Arnold. You can hear and feel the invisible bond between Magali Luyten and Josie Ann Mau, the female vocalists in their duet. Now and then you feel your tears coming, especially as Marek creates beautiful sax moments. And towards the end Martin gives you some guitar solos that are made in heaven. Prog does not always mean heavy songs, the proof is in this one. It is melodic and touches you, however towards the end it becomes heavier, as an introduction to the next song, which continues seamlessly. And the next one is Nita - The Keeper. She is one of the head characters of the album, sung by Natalie Brown of the band Circuline. It is a powerful song with lovely singing of Natalie, who stands for her role as The Keeper. Besides powerful it is also technical and really melodic. Halfway the song we are treated by four great guitar solos behind each other, they are from Martin Schnella, Brendt Allman, Gery Wehrkamp (both of Shadow Gallery) and Martin Schnella again. It sounds fantastic, really well done. After this great piece of soloing, it is Marek again with a keyboard solo this time. This piece of music is how prog metal needs to sound. Everything in this song is right. Meera - The Guardian is the next one on the album. There is not a second to recover from the previous song because Meera - The Guardian also starts heavy. This time the lead singer is Magali Luyten (Ayreon) who stands for Meera, she has a powerful voice that sounds good, she grabs you by the throat. Musical wise this is another prog metal song, not as heavy as it's predecessor, but heavy enough, especially the guitar parts are pounding. Special mention for the suburb bass work in this one, played by Alexander Langner (Chaosbay). Mithila's End is the sixth song. It starts with technical guitar playing, another heavy one. This time the main vocals are by Glynn Morgan and Magali Luyten, who bring out the best in each other. Because of their reach the song sounds really heavy. In this song it is the turn of Richard Henshall (Haken) to give a great guitar solo towards the end of the song. It Was Magic continues where Mithila's End finishes. The first few minutes are with acoustic guitars and they are so welcome after all the powerful music so far. You can hear three female vocalists and I think that that is such a strong point of the whole album, the singing together, as counterpart to the walls of sound that regularly comes your way. But if you think that the whole song is not that heavy, then I need to say sorry, because after a while the bombasticness is back, leading to another marvelous solo from Martin, followed by a solo on guitar played by Marcus Siepen (Blind Guardian) that is so melodic, your head needs to move on this one and your arms are risen to heaven and you can only think: it is magic! Then after a while staccato riffing comes to you with great drumming. Now you can lick your lips, pure prog metal with double bass drums. This is so delicious and tastes for more. After this song is over, I really need to press the pause button because it totally blew away my mind, as if I became crazy. Of course I do not press the pause button, because I need to hear more of this music. And lucky I am, the members of Flaming Row knew a little pause was needed by the listener. The pause is in the form of the track Between Worlds. Well, I think I just wrote that I was in another world, so I can use this song to return to earth again. Between Worlds is a piece of music that is warm and calm and is totally played on harp, played by Harriet Earis. Who ever said harp did not fit in prog is proved wrong, it sounds lovely and as earlier said, it is needed to get a new focus for what is coming. And what becomes next, it is Hope For A Miracle, one of the longer tracks that almost clocks nine minutes. It starts a bit spooky with eastern music. It takes a little bit time, and you can also hear a bit of saxophone. Then we get back to the prog again, with lovely guitar playing, rhythmically played with some lovely drumming periods, loud and heavy. Lyrically it deals with the faith in a miracle, and that is exactly what you can hear in the music, now and then really melodic, then technical and now and then you hear the purring bass guitar. Of course you can hear a few guitar solos. This time the guest is Gary Wehrkamp again and he also gives some melody for your ears again, lovely. Towards the end in this song the drumming is so special that you are clapping your hands without knowing that you are doing that. You know that the hope for a miracle is not hope anymore, it became reality. It ends with Mark on the piano. Another great piece of music. And then, The Last Stand, so hold on! Melodic guitars starts and your head is moving again, another great playing, purring bass, pounding drumming by Jimmy Keegan (Pattern Seeking Animals and ex Spock's Beard) who can play this style perfect and this time it is the turn to Jan Listing (Chaosbay) to do the male lead vocals and he is angry, because of the last stand, he wants not to lose. This is another heavy song and now we know that the good has overcome the bad. That becomes more then clear in the next song, More Than Words, that starts with a lot of other instruments then we are used to. You can hear whistle, cello, harp, piano, saxophone, fretless bass, violin, lap steel guitar and singing together and is a friendly song this time. Towards the end you can hear solos of whistle, violin and lap steel guitar. Great to hear solos of these instruments, different to what we heard earlier and it fits in perfectly. So thankful for this piece of music be something different. The last one is An Old Legend and is another heavy one with double bass drums and great guitar riffing again. If the guitar solo comes, you can hear that it is played by Arjen Lucassen from Ayreon. Then we are going to headbang once more, to unlearn it. In this song you can also hear a guitar solo by Eric Gillette (Neal Morse Band, Temic) and you can recognize him out of a thousand. The last minute the harp will be heard again, and slowly the album fades away. Well, what can I say more about this great piece of music than that everyone needs to have it in his or her music collection. This kind of operas are a feast for the ears. After listening to this album, I bought all albums of Flaming Row and listened to them and I have to say that for me, this one is the bands best album to date. I hope that Martin and co find more inspiration to create music on this high level, because that is what this music is. A true masterpiece for me. This band brings this album as a huge project. The most extended version has the English version, a German sung version and also you can find the story as read aloud book. Highly recommended! ***** Michel Stolk (edited by Dave Smith) Where to buy? |
