Coroner - Grin
I expected Coroner to win me over pretty instantaneously, but I’ve found myself going the slow route with them, getting into them more with every listen. This is their fourth and final (I guess there’s more music on the s/t album but it’s partially a comp) album and for a metal release fairly long at 50 something minutes. Part of why it takes so long is that this isn’t much of a flash album, rather it has more epic tones to it which I didn’t really get with too earlier, but now I’m hearing the longer form compositions with the developing riff structures and realizing there’s a lot of thought involved in these releases and that they really weren’t on any sort of decline when they finally hung it up. Impressive and the 10s I have on their releases are busting at the seams.
Agharta s/t
If the world was fair this would be a self-titled album by Mysterious Traveller or Black Market, as that would at least show where this Canadian jazz rock band’s hearts are at, in fact where a lot of fusion hearts were during this period. No matter where the origin of the music, the marks of Zawinul, Shorter and Pastorious are all over this and you can imagine that it’s likely to cause a Miles fan a bit of misapprehension, there aren’t any nasty one-note jams to highlight and solos and I suppose fans wouldn’t have it any different. It all strikes me as terribly bland.
Phillipe Caillat - Fire Brigade
While the Agharta had a little dynamic breathing room, this album by guitarist Caillat and which I believe was his first was something I reviewed for Gnosis a while back, is rendered rather dull and lifeless by the poor production and lack of tonal variation. No knock on the playing at all, which is interesting and quite firey and passionate at times, but overall I can’t find enough to connect with it. Can’t find any reason to lower it under a nine, but nor to keep it either….