...the Water Had Rounded the Stones

We're spiraling down into obscurity here – 1991 demo tape ...the Water Had Rounded the Stones, with an already unknown cover, marks the last thing released by Tetragon in their original run that is possible to find at the day of writing, so, with all due respect to their subsequent tapes Promo 1992 and Camaraderie, I'll back out here.

The peculiar title isn't the only weird (I think I've used this word way too much with this band) feature about this demo, as it consists of three very long songs that try to follow the Vermilion title-track route. Did they succeed? More or less. 'Motherland' and 'Variables / God's Only Son', despite their gigantic running time, clearly sound composed with a clear vision in mind, with several interesting sections, again regrettably hampered by Petri's voice constantly cycling between the same 4-5 notes, sometimes even sounding... not convinced himself? I know this isn't exactly music to let the vocalist shine, and for all I know he might have been their main songwriter and most important member, but he surely wasn't a natural born singer, that's for sure. I don't know what that slash in the latter's title stands for, because despite looking like there would have been two songs in one, it actually feels like three or four different parts of a suite chasing each other. Conversely, opener 'In Flight / Rounded Colours' unfortunately fails to have anything off its whirlwind of ideas stick, and the solo coming across as goofy and awkward is a further disappointment given the band's ambitions and skills.

Man, that was weird (oops... I did it again). I fail to possibly imagine where Tetragon might have gone from here onward, but it will forever remain a mystery. I don't think they were chasing any form of success, though, with stuff so strange, as ...the Water Had Rounded the Stones truly conveys the image of five musicians playing their hearts out for themselves and no one else. Another little oddity found beneath the surface of this frigid country... maybe not the last?

-review written for the 10th Diamhea Memorial Review Challenge – may you rest in peace, Chris.