Seven That Spells: Future Retro Spasm

The fourth release from Croatia's Seven That Spells, is a challenging blend of repetitive melodic passages that are punctuated by lengthy freak outs that while blindingly technical and supremely executed, will leave only the most adventurous of music lovers still paying attention as the next speck of restrainment appears in the distance. To suggest that Future Retro Spasm is full on, doesn't even come close to the aural battering your ears will take if you listen to the hugely extended outro (and by hugely, I mean ten minutes or so) of "The Abandoned World Of Automata", where the cacophonous array of searing guitar solos, jazz-death metal drum bursts and sax wailing, drives home with such force that it virtually knocks you off your chair! To pull that trick off once is immensely impressive, if not massively entertaining however the real downfall of this album is that Seven That Spells don't just apply their every note played at least once per second to that one song. No we are treated to this maelstrom on each and every one of the six workouts spurted out on this disc.

I can't stress enough that the actual musical skill and dexterity required to put this spacerock-kruat-jazzfusion-freakout together verges on astounding, but it just isn't really all that enjoyable to listen to. Repeated attempts to break down the ferocious attack employed on this album do begin, very slowly to reveal the melodies and ideas that I'm sure first brought these songs into life and while I can sit through Future Retro Spasm in one go, the overriding feeling at the conclusion of the disc is one of fatigue. I just feel worn down by the lack of compromise, or hooks of any sort and the fact the pattern across the disc of starting slowly and melodically before cranking the intensity up and up and up and up and up and up and.....(you get the idea) loses all its impact when it is repeated with such unerring regularity.

I can imagine the grins of the musicians performing this as they thrash their instruments to within an inch of their lives, but for anyone not taking part in the creation of this music, the reaction is more likely to be bemusement as to when the songs start.

Track Listing
1. Olympos
2. G
3. Terminus Est
4. The Abandoned World Of Automata
5. Death Star Narcolepsy
6. Quetzalcoatl

Added: November 21st 2010
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: BLRR Records
Hits: 2503
Language: english

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