Kaleidoscope

This is the product of just one man… it wasn’t meant that way, though, as at the beginning there was a whole team of inspired dedicated musicians behind this project. Said team created a really captivating 3-track demo in the distant 1992, a fascinating cross between the 80’s power metal movement in the guys’ homeland and abstract mathematical equations ala early Psychotic Waltz.

Capitalizing on this absorbing, multi-layered delivery should have been on top of the musicians’ list, but internal frictions led to the guys going their separate ways, leaving the guitar player and vocalist Tom Mitchell alone. The man powered through and managed to produce the album reviewed here, an arresting mind-challenging, over-an-hour-long journey through the crevices and chasms of the progressive metal domain.

The subtitle is very well deserving, to put it mildly, “metal for the progressive mind” that is, the man well aware of where he wants to go with this opus. The allusions to his colleagues and compatriots from the 80’s are gone, though; this is sharp heavy music with numerous mazey riff-mosaics, think a blend of Zero Hour, Andromeda and Prototype, but having in mind that this is a creation of a single musician, the kudos get increased tenfold.

The album is split into two sides, lengthy (6-8min) entangled compositions with grandiloquent tale-telling structures; and shorter concise, curter pieces those bordering on tech-thrash. Mitchell provides a really cool mid-ranged attached timbre to accompany the heightened musicalities some of which are most absorbing multifarious dramas (“Pillars of Strength”) with ballads and hard-hitting passages intertwined, this compelling symbiosis stitched by dexterous lead guitar pyrotechnics. There’s a slight epic element (“Friend's Reunion”) rising out of some of the material, but the sense of melody never becomes overbearing due to the near-constant supply of dense intricate staccato rhythms, “Young Lions” a most shining example of the latter approach, with “Triskaidekaphobia” shredding with dark pulverizing Zero Hour-esque determination all the way to “King's Masquerade”, a supreme tractate on technical thrash lore, a totally forgotten etude from Sieges Even’s “Life Cycle”, Mitchell unwinding towards the end with briefer tunes, another one being “Hate”, a hectic choppy cut with a more pronounced bass prowling.

There are two pure balladic segments, the short serene ”It Haunts Me Still”, and the expansive 8.5-min elegy “Borrowed Time”, the latter waking up for a crunchy rowdier finale. Nothing wrong with those, the man likes it tranquil, utilizes this tool relatively often, but never overdoes it as his both eyes are on the metal for most of the time, the final result nothing short of outstanding, an obscure blotch of labyrinthine musical artistry from the late-90’s which also appeared very timely having in mind that the Zero Hour and Prototype official debuts sprang up at the same time. Mitchell was doing something right, having gotten accustomed to the lone wolf status, pouring his heart and soul into solid albeit challenging musical conundrums, pricking the underground soundly with this fascinating kaleidoscope.

Hm, the title of this effort is identical to another one, from 1992… the Mekong Delta masterpiece. Well, no one’s said that there can’t be two kaleidoscopes colouring our world… but you can only choose this title if you know that you’ve created music that would leave awe-stricken and gaping faces in its wake… you’re simply forbidden to smear this label with something even half-marvellous.