Combination Of Forms...

Flight of the Seraphim - Fire, Water, Earth, Wind (2015)

It's difficult to give a description of Flight of the Seraphim without mentioning how prolific they are, as the band released four EPs and an album in 2014.  Since their EPs are long enough to pass for albums, you can do your own math on how much time the band invests in refining its prog metal arrangements before sharing them with the world, but the point is that this band somehow arranges a ton of intricate stuff and makes it sound good.
That fine polish and giving nature are clearly still in effect on FotS' latest album, which in addition to a track for each of the title elements boasts an bonus pair of songs, "Quintessence" and "Aether".  The band does an impressive job channeling the nature of each one into the musical textures and attitudes, with the rippling ring mod and overlapping rhythms of "Water" making for some of the more evocative moments (and, of course, "Earth" gets heavy, heavy, heavy, despite being the shortest of the title tracks).
It's all handled with skill and creativity, with no sense of pretension or over-repetition to the tangles of notes and beats, and while the album fits together great on its own, the two extra tracks make for a very effective coda.  Another impressive work from Flight of the Seraphim, certainly worth investigating if you've got a taste for metal mixing heaviness with lush sounds and song-writing.
~ Gabriel

For Fans Of;    Chord, Wicked Lady, Mondo Drag, Indukti, Titan

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Flight of the Seraphim - III. Earth (320 kbps)

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"Life, Death, and Tube Amplifiers"

Flight of the Seraphim ~ The West (2014)

Flight of the Seraphim is a one man project from Wisconsin, with Sam Wallman handling the arrangement, engineering, and mastering of the entire thing. With this two track spacey, psychedelic, sludgy behemoth clocking in at about thirty-five minutes, I wouldn't say it was for people with short attention spans. The first of the two tracks on this release, the aptly named "The West: Part I" wastes no time getting started, opening up with a chunky bass riff it's not long before the guitar drops in and gives a very ethereal vibe to the whole thing, like floating in space and not being tethered to anything. Of course, with an almost sixteen minute instrumental song, there's tons of room to improvise and incorporate all sorts of influences and ideas into the music. As a quick example, after a few minutes of a space voyage, the music makes a change and trails off down sludge path, brutalizing every note along the way, with the drums picking up pace and the rest of the instruments following suit, the previously rather mellow and reserved track starts grooving and really stretching it's Metal legs. After a few more minutes you're presented with a screaming guitar solo that lasts a couple minutes before subsiding like a worn out storm. After going back to the albums space inspired roots for a few minutes, it's not long before the guitar changes up again, this time near the end of the track and it just happily plays psychedelic riffs before the whole song breaks down into a Sludge Metal chaos and roars to life just before the song ends, like the track's personal swan song. With "Part II" clocking in at just shy of twenty minutes, you have two mind consuming astral journeys on one release, and when being offered as a "name your price" deal on bandcamp, you can't argue with the price.

~Skip

For Fans Of; Frozen Planet....1969, Hawkmoth, Heavy Blanket

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