Where Worlds Collide

It’s that time of the year again. 2010 doesn’t seem to have been quite as strong a year as 2009, when I did a top 15 - this year I struggled to name ten. On the other hand, my top four are absolutely superb. A couple of 2010 releases are missing (most notably the excellent Satellite by Panic Room) because I included the pre-release editions in my 2009 list, and it doesn’t seem right to list them twice.

10: Tarja - What Lies Beneath

The second solo album from the former Nightwish lead singer has a massive production including orchestras and kitchen sinks as well as metal guitars, but never quite comes alive. There are some good songs in the mix of big rock numbers and power-ballads, but Tarja’s soprano vocals, while technically superb throughout, lack emotion too much of the time.

9: Rhapsody of Fire - The Frozen Tears of Angels

More Dungeons and Dragons operatic pomp-metal from the Italian quintet, again featuring narration from Sir Christopher Lee and a corny plot featuring a Dark Lord called “Necron”. All good fun in a cheesy sort of way, even if it doesn’t really break any new ground for the band. Twenty-sided dice are not included.

8: New Dance Orchestra – Electronica

An unexpectedly good album from Geoff Downes (the instrumental half of The Buggles) with the superb Anne-Marie Helder on vocals. Billed as “dance-pop”, it’s more 80s pop than Ibiza-style dance anthems, a great collection of well-crafted songs. This one’s a pre-order, currently available direct from the band, but won’t have a retail release until the new year.

7: Anathema - We’re Here Because We’re Here

The former doom-metallers return after a lengthy absence and drop just about all traces of metal from their sound in favour of atmospheric soundscapes. It’s a musical journey that works far far better as one continuous listen than as a collection of individual songs.

6: The Reasoning - Adverse Camber

The Cardiff band’s third album continues in a similar prog-metal vein as 2008′s “Dark Angel”, albeit with Rachel Cohen handling the majority of the lead vocals. A solid piece of work with some great songs, even if it doesn’t (for me at least) quite reach the heights of their first two albums.

5: Pure Reason Revolution - Hammer and Anvil

PRR describe their third album as “Disco-prog”, meaning they’ve put electronic dance, prog and metal into a blender. At times atmospheric, at times sounding like The Prodigy at their most mental, it puts the progressive back into prog.

4: Therion - Sitra Ahra

Not quite as bonkers as their last album “Gothic Kabballah”, this one is the slightly more accessible side of Therion’s choral metal. It’s still filled with complex multi-part vocal arrangements using multiple classically-trained singers, which when combined with twin lead guitars makes for a very rich sound indeed.

3: Black Country Communion

The combination of Glenn Hughes, Joe Bonamassa, Jason Bonham and Derek Sherinian is in danger of giving supergroups a good name with this album of classic 70s-style hard rock. Hughes, despite his age is on fine form vocally, Bonamassa shows he can do hard rock as well as blues, and Jason Bonham is in the same league as his famous father. Sherinian really only has a supporting role given that cast, but still delivers some great Hammond playing. The best album Led Zeppelin never recorded in the 70s? Maybe.

2: Karnataka - The Gathering Light

Five years in the making, the second incarnation of Karnataka finally deliver an album of old-school symphonic prog on a truly epic scale. Features heartfelt female vocals from the now-departed Lisa Fury and some fantastic guitar playing from Enrico Pinna, as well as guest appearances from Troy Donockley on Uilleann pipes, and Hugh McDowell, formerly of ELO, on cello.

1: Mostly Autumn - Go Well Diamond Heart

OK, so you all know I’m a huge fan of this band. But this is the first time since I’ve been blogging that they’ve come up with my album of the year. It’s an immensely varied album containing atmospheric celtic moments, belting hard rockers, shimmering four-minute pop songs, and soaring ballads. They’ve managed to take the spirit of 70s classic rock and made it sound relevant for the 21st century with great songwriting, singing and musicianship. And they’ve done it straight after the departure of a much-loved lead singer too.

“And then there were five”, said Rachel Cohen at the start of The Reasoning’s gig at The Fleece and Firkin in Bristol. The departure of guitarist, vocalist and founder member Dylan Thompson on the eve of the tour came as something as a shock. The band’s decision to rehearse and tour as a five-piece rather than postpone the tour was a brave one, which left quite a few people wondering quite how they’d reproduce much of their complex multi-layered material live. So I set out to for Bristol, a new venue for me, not quite knowing what to expect from them.

As soon as they took the stage and launched into the prog-metal of “Dark Angel”, it was clear that they’d pulled it off. Far from having obvious holes in the sound, the slimmed-down incarnation of The Reasoning simply gives each of the musicians more space. Less was indeed more. As they always have been, the band were both tight and had really high energy level.

Naturally they played a much rearranged setlist, dropping many of the songs that relied on Dylan’s lead vocals in favour of songs with Rachel singing lead. So we saw the return of songs like “Within Cold Glass” from their first album, and the first UK appearance of the Dream Theater-esque 14 from their most recent album “Adverse Camber”. Keyboardist Tony Turrell, who’s previously only sung backing vocals, took the male lead vocal on “Awakening” and “A Musing Dream”, while Matt Cohen, who’d previously not been let near a microphone, added some backing vocals. Owain Roberts did a superb job as sole guitarist, nailing the solos he hadn’t previously played. Tony Turrell’s keys weren’t always that prominent in the mix, but his solo spot, with sections of Fish’s “Plague of Ghosts” and bits of assorted Marillion tunes went down extremely well with a certain section of the crowd.

As one of the band said, when their backs are against the wall, they come out fighting. The slimmed-down Reasoning still rock, and it will be interesting to hear where go next, especially when they return to the studio.

At the beginning of the year Heather Findlay shocked the progressive rock world by announcing that she was leaving Mostly Autumn after more than a decade to embark on a solo career. The band announced that no way could she be allowed to leave without a proper goodbye. So she would be making one last farewell appearance with the band, at The Assembly in Leamington Spa on Good Friday. Shortly afterwards came the announcement that the show would be recorded for a DVD release.

This is that DVD.

Beginning with the now familiar opener “Fading Colours”, the first disk shows a tight, professional performance, typical of their shows throughout last year captured on the two excellent “Live 2009″ CDs. But the second half of the show ratchets up the emotional intensity by several notches, and by the end it’s actually quite draining to watch. This is a band really putting their heart and soul into the music, and some of the band are close to tears by the end. As are many of the audience.

The setlist is pretty much the same as the band were playing towards the end of last year, a greatest hits set skewed slightly in favour of Heather’s songs; all-time favourites like “Shrinking Violet”, “Evergreen”, “Passengers” and “Carpe Diem” as well as recent songs like the powerful “Unoriginal Sin”. The DVD includes the entire two and a half hour show, completely unedited, with all the song introductions, and the emotional farewells at the end.

While the band’s performance is absolutely “as it happened”, they’ve clearly taken a great deal of care in the mixing, mastering and video editing, and that time and effort has paid off. Audio and video quality are both excellent; every instrument and voice of the eight-piece band can be heard clearly, including Anne-Marie Helder’s flute and Olivia Sparnenn’s backing vocals, and the camerawork is excellent given the limitations of the venue’s stage lighting. The video editing is absolutely superb, and really manages to capture what it’s like to be in the front row at a Mostly Autumn gig. Closeups of band members naturally favour Heather, and to a lesser extent Bryan Josh. Anne-Marie gets a fair bit of camera time during the flute solos, although you only get occasional glimpses of one or two of the band.

As someone who was there, this DVD not only succeeds in capturing the atmosphere of that emotional night, but shows what a class act Mostly Autumn can be on stage, and of course, shows what a great singer and charismatic frontwoman they had in Heather Findlay. I look forward to her solo career with great interest.

Just eight days later, Mostly Autumn took to the stage again in Gloucester, with former backing vocalist Olivia Sparnenn taking over as the band’s new lead singer. But that’s another story.

The DVD is available from Mostly Autumn Records.