| CD REVIEW Spires |
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Band : Spires Originally the brainchild of singer/ guitarist/ producer Paul Sadler (formerly of InSilence and Tomb), whom was joined by virtuoso guitarist Paul Cuthbert (whom we know from Nailed and Sermon Of Hypocrisy), bassist Alex Jolley and eventually, after a vast number of try-outs and failings, by drummer Chris Barnard. With the line-up stable since early 2008, the Manchester based British multi-influenced Progressive Metal band's extremely tight, energetic and passionate live appearances have been gaining 'em a steadily growing fanbase around the North of England. Musically, comparisons have often been made to the likes of Opeth, Emperor, Mastodon, and Cynic...and seen the highly technical and intrinsic play combined with a flair for catchy songwriting (making for recognizable and melodic songs, in spite of their occasional length – see further) and inclusion of elements from Death and Black in their music and vocal stylings, that's hardly a surprise! However, the actual list of influences the and draws from is far longer...and that's hardly a surprise either, because even the summing up of the above mentioned do not make for the highly unique sound the band produces. Last year the band felt the time had come to let the world at large know what they were about, so they recorded 8 of their tunes (with a total duration of just over 65 minutes) under Sadler's productional directions (he also engineered and mixed the recordings), and then had the lot mastered by the now legendary Nick Hemingway at Philia Studios. As a result, we get a truly full and fat, but also super-clean sound. Seen time limitations usually practiced on the airwaves, one would be hard-pressed to find a suitable track for radio promotion on this album. There's of course the 2:17 instrumental “Nightfall”, but its acoustic meandering is hardly representative for the album. The shortest track to follow, would be the 4:54 long “Symmetry”...but again that's a very calm song overall, and even in its heavier mid-section passage there's none of the occasional Death and/ or Black Metal influences which you can hear in the music and vocals of other songs. So, it's off to album openers “Equilibrium” and “The Infinite Descent”, “shorter” songs which both feature a multitude of influences...but with durations of respectively 6:47 and 6:36, they far exceed the average length a song played on radio is “supposed” to have. So, would a solution to the problem possibly lay in making “radio edits” of these songs? Well, I wouldn't wanna be in the shoes of the fellow whom would have to undertake the task of performing that feat...because in my eyes the tracks are just perfect the way they are! In fact, as far as I'm concerned, if I was a radio show host, I'd wave the “rules” and go for an airing of one of the longer songs...the 10:32 “Martyr” if I wanted to be careful about my job...the 13:34 “Broken Hourglass” if I wanted to be somewhat defiant, but still wanted to hold the argument of not having aired the lóngest track, after all...or be all-out daring by play the 14:36 album title track. Picking anyone of those by preference would be an impossible thing, at least for me, and I suppose I would be led by my antipathy for my corporate bosses. Ach, how nice that I'm nót a radio dj, and a music journalist for a website in stead...the latter allowing me to elucidate about a band at my heart's whim! To continue in that mood, I haven't mentioned the album closing bonus instrumental “A New Prayer” yet. But why add this perfectly nice track as a bonus, I wonder? Perhaps the band sees a song in it, but didn't have appropriate lyrics for it yet? Whatever...even as an instrumental the track contains enough variation to keep the listener mesmerized from start to finish! To get an earful of this band...and I suggest any open-minded lover of Progressive music (be the template Heavy, Black, or Death Metal) will find something in this band's music...it suffices to focus your attention to the music player at (www.) myspace.com/spiresmetal, where the band posted mp3 files to the tracks “Equilibrium”, “The Infinite Descent”, and “Symmetry”. Personally, I'd love to hold back the promo copy of the album we got sent for inclusion in my own collection, but I'm dead-certain my editor-in-chief has other ideas about that! Funny thing: in the reviews about the album that were already posted, the reviewers complain about how UK music is often overlooked in favour of the bigger budgetted US market. I thought it was one of the tasks of music journalism to point out to the music industry what's available band-wize on home soil? Oh well, we can only do our best, ain't that so? As far as Spiral Of Ascension is concerned, I've had to retro-actively add it to my “Best Albums Of 2011”-lists. This is a band fully deservant of getting a (good) deal in the major label part of the music business, and I am looking out with anticipation to what the band's sophomore album (on which they start work this same year) will bring! Meanwhile, I hope I can catch a copy of the album at my local record shop! 98/100 Tony. |