City of the Sun by Seven Impale

City of the Sun, a magnificent album by the Norwegian band  Seven Impale, from 2014.

Six musicians with backgrounds in jazz and classical music, this is their debut album, marvelous from start to finish, further proof that the Scandinavian scene, what I call Northern Prog, has been steadily growing for many years now and is dominating the progressive music of this century.

Excellent playing skills to invent something new, an eclectic album, at times dark and heavy and at times aggressive, but also with moments of soft jazz and many melodic themes combined, explosions, jazz improvisations, and some passages bordering on the avant-garde, with beautiful distorted bass at times.

A sophisticated album that combines great jazz rock, progressive rock, and a touch of progressive metal with a beautiful groove.

The opening track, Oh, My Gravity!, is remarkable. It starts out jazzy and then merges with beautiful prog in a very articulated and complex way, with a riot of breaks emphasized by excellent horns and in particular a great sax solo. A beautiful song.

Windshears begins with a soft and light mood with a very strong jazz accent, with the sax still in the spotlight, but the rhythm section is also excellent. Then the song grows imposing and disturbing with a fantastic prog-rock-fusion fusion, with a purely prog-style vocal with its Nordic mood and a complexity managed with excellent performances and forays into pure electric rock, for a very open and captivating finale with a luminous atmosphere. Great song.

Eschaton Horo is another song that starts off decidedly fusion-like, with great bass and subtle, precise drums. Endless breaks and the chaos of the horns playing over them. A tense song in the opening section, the tempo suddenly drops, and the keyboard takes on a light, syncopated feel. The voice enters lightly, with a beautiful movement of sound and a lovely melody. The song becomes sweet and light overall, and then the melody is destroyed by a return to the world of chaos, with syncopated, aggressive, uninterrupted breaks until the final guitar and drums riff, pure progressive metal, disturbing and tense, with a beautiful dissonant guitar solo and precise, hard drums. Then a scream from the band and the track begins a few bars of rock, with the wind instruments and guitar playing in very effective unison... at the end, the soft, light mood returns with a very strong jazz accent, with the sax once again taking center stage, the subtle voice... purely jazz accents. This song is a masterpiece.
- Extraction starts with a chaotic, hard rock sound. The same theme is quickly converted into jazz fusion. Then comes the variation with hard rock vocals and a long, epic section, with slow, decisive drumming. A Zeppelin-esque mood in the vocals and a sound enriched by piano and jazz guitar in the softer moments, as chaos returns to disturb the peace repeatedly with 1970s prog keyboards, giving way once again to epic and captivating moments. Another masterpiece.
- And after all this beauty, there's no downturn; on the contrary, "God Left Us For A Black Dressed Woman" is my favorite track. It closes on a crescendo, 14 minutes of great mastery, with a magnificent saxophone from the very first bars, a jazz-rock mood with very innovative keyboard sounds. A true suite that begins majestically with a theme that is perfectly in the Northern Prog mood, haunting and imposing, interpreted with different tones and emphasis, truly excellent acoustic guitars. The vocals and interpretation are splendid. A great display of technique at all levels and on all instruments, jazzy riffs with distorted guitar. Multiple variations on the main theme, but without losing the focus on jazz-rock. A purely orchestral work by the band. Great piece.

Spectacular album, absolutely recommended, especially for those who love jazz in rock and all lovers of prog and jazz rock fusion!

Tracklist
1. Oh, My Gravity! (10:08)
2. Windshears (6:44)
3. Eschaton Horo (8:46)
4. Extraction (6:48)
5. God Left Us for a Black-Dressed Woman (14:41)
Running Time: 47:07

Line-Up
- Stian Økland - vocals, guitar
- Erlend Vottvik Olsen - guitar
- Håkon Vinje - keyboards
- Benjamin Mekki Widerøe - saxophone
- Tormod Fosso - bass, cello
- Fredrik Mekki Widerøe - drums
Featuring:
- Iver Sandøy - performer, producer, mixing