Five years ago, the German/Canadian band with the great name Huxley Would Approve released part 1 of Grave New World and that album had definite influences from Pink Floyd's album Final Cut; meaning dark, mysterious, and conceptual. The second part of Grave New World is again a concept album with lots of prog metal elements and again some dark Floyd elements. The German multi-instrumentalist Rainer Schneider played almost every instrument. His partner in crime is the Canadian Joe Bolieiro, who is responsible for the lyrics, concept ideas and development, 3D modeling, images, and sequences. The other most important person on the album is Judith Mattes-Schneider who took care of the vocals on four songs. In fact, it is easy to state that if you liked the first part of Grave New World then you might be in for a treat again with this part 2. I especially like/admire the instrumental songs Blue Morpho Part 3 and Blue Morpho Part 4 and Shadow Work, the latter featuring a more than excellent guitar solo done by Werner Melchior. Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier is a ballad-like track with lots of keys and the beautiful female voice of Mattes. Grave New World Part 2 is a great, but dark prog/rock/metal album, again as I said before in the veins of Floyd. But then again there is more to Huxley Would Approve then only Floyd influences; they definitely have a sound/style of their own, so truly recommended indeed. ***+ Martien Koolen (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
