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Gentle Art Of Music [Release date: 22.09.23]
My fellow GRTR! reviewer Pete Whalley gave a four-star review to Subsignal’s previous album ‘La Muerta’ in 2018 – opining at the time that the band had “waved goodbye” to their metal tendencies prevalent on their previous four albums.
It is not happenstance that this farewell coincided with the move to the Gentle Art Of Music label created and run by fabulous fellow-German progmeisters, RPWL (check out their countless 5* reviews on GRTR!).
‘A Poetry Of Rain’ is Subsignal’s sixth studio album and with said RPWL vocalist/keyboard whizz Yogi Lang in the producer’s chair (and occasional keys) the band has taken a giant leap forward from the excellent ‘La Muerta’ to potential progressive rock greatness.
Born out of Covid dormancy, the band has pursued what they term “a cultivation of sadness” – and although the album is rooted in melancholy they do not fall into the elephant trap of bottomless gloom.
In fact, there is much uplifting music here and examples all over the place that they haven’t left their metal roots completely in the rear-view mirror with chunky riffs on tracks such as ‘The Art Of Giving In’, ‘Sliver (The Sheltered Garden)’ and the ironically titled ‘Melencolia’ (sic) with its rolling, percussive riff.
The guitar chorus pedal is put to good use on the chiming ‘Impasse’ and ‘Embers Part II: Water Wings’ (both worth the entry fee alone) and there’s a curveball jazz sax solo enhancing the classic prog of ‘The Last Of Its Kind’.
Every track here has its merits but two in particular are outstanding – ‘Marigold’ has the feel of Toto’s wonderful ‘Africa’ about its intro, seguéing into a chiming guitar riff and anthemic solo with vocalist Arno Menses given free-rein to shine.
The other is a bit problematic.
Closing track ‘A Room On The Edge Of Forever’ has a wonderful cascading acoustic riff and beautifully picked nylon-strung fretwork which pushes the track to one of the stand-outs. However, this is only available as a bonus track on the CD or via streaming – I would be extremely pissed off to find out it was missing off the vinyl version, given the premium price.
Anyway, putting that irritation to one side, what we have here is a top-notch progressive rock album featuring outstanding musicianship from all concerned – a quantum leap forward from where they were and rapt anticipation for where they go next.
Just great – and a treat for fans of melodic prog everywhere. ****
Review by Alan Jones
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