Носитель: CD (Album) Страна - производитель диска: Norway Год издания оригинала: 2010 Издатель (лейбл): Not on Label / Self-released Номер по каталогу: n/a Продолжительность: 1:06:36 Источник (релизер): Моя коллекция, мой рип Трэклист:
1. Land Of The Sun (9:16)
2. Cry No More (3:50)
3. Promises (6:26)
4. Love In The Sky (6:55)
5. Shot To The Ground (5:40)
6. Remember (5:10)
7. Broken Man (13:34):
- a) Accussiations
- b) The Hangman
- c) Death
- d) The Ghost
8. Out To The Fields (15:45):
- a) To The Fields
- b) The Journey
- c) The Battle
- d) Homecoming
Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011 EAC extraction logfile from 5. October 2017, 0:28 Fatal Fusion / Land of the Sun Used drive : _NEC DVD_RW ND-3540A Adapter: 1 ID: 0 Read mode : Secure Utilize accurate stream : Yes Defeat audio cache : Yes Make use of C2 pointers : No Read offset correction : 48 Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000 Gap handling : Appended to previous track Used output format : User Defined Encoder Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s Quality : High Add ID3 tag : Yes Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE Additional command line options : -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" %hascover%--picture="%coverfile%"%hascover% %source% -o %dest% TOC of the extracted CD Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector --------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 0:00.00 | 9:16.00 | 0 | 41699 2 | 9:16.00 | 3:55.56 | 41700 | 59380 3 | 13:11.56 | 6:28.00 | 59381 | 88480 4 | 19:39.56 | 6:58.00 | 88481 | 119830 5 | 26:37.56 | 5:42.00 | 119831 | 145480 6 | 32:19.56 | 5:12.00 | 145481 | 168880 7 | 37:31.56 | 12:36.00 | 168881 | 225580 8 | 50:07.56 | 15:45.15 | 225581 | 296470 Track 1 Filename F:\Music\olaf_alien\Fatal Fusion - Land of the Sun (2010, Self-released)\01 - Land of the Sun.wav Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00 Peak level 98.8 % Extraction speed 5.0 X Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC 7005C8FA Copy CRC 7005C8FA Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [14F6A92B] (AR v2) Copy OK Track 2 Filename F:\Music\olaf_alien\Fatal Fusion - Land of the Sun (2010, Self-released)\02 - Cry No More.wav Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00 Peak level 98.8 % Extraction speed 5.3 X Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC 990BB5A6 Copy CRC 990BB5A6 Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [A2CC6A02] (AR v2) Copy OK Track 3 Filename F:\Music\olaf_alien\Fatal Fusion - Land of the Sun (2010, Self-released)\03 - Promises.wav Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00 Peak level 98.8 % Extraction speed 6.1 X Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC CD0B7C5B Copy CRC CD0B7C5B Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [0E5D1142] (AR v2) Copy OK Track 4 Filename F:\Music\olaf_alien\Fatal Fusion - Land of the Sun (2010, Self-released)\04 - Love in the Sky.wav Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00 Peak level 98.8 % Extraction speed 6.0 X Track quality 99.9 % Test CRC 0DC0D778 Copy CRC 0DC0D778 Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [1D3E6CC8] (AR v2) Copy OK Track 5 Filename F:\Music\olaf_alien\Fatal Fusion - Land of the Sun (2010, Self-released)\05 - Shot to the Ground.wav Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00 Peak level 98.8 % Extraction speed 7.0 X Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC 95AC780A Copy CRC 95AC780A Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [38E8A15C] (AR v2) Copy OK Track 6 Filename F:\Music\olaf_alien\Fatal Fusion - Land of the Sun (2010, Self-released)\06 - Remember.wav Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00 Peak level 98.8 % Extraction speed 7.3 X Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC FB617182 Copy CRC FB617182 Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [3EAC4102] (AR v2) Copy OK Track 7 Filename F:\Music\olaf_alien\Fatal Fusion - Land of the Sun (2010, Self-released)\07 - Broken Man.wav Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00 Peak level 98.8 % Extraction speed 8.3 X Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC 3CA0E68E Copy CRC 3CA0E68E Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [AD3A1BE1] (AR v2) Copy OK Track 8 Filename F:\Music\olaf_alien\Fatal Fusion - Land of the Sun (2010, Self-released)\08 - Out to the Fields.wav Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00 Peak level 98.8 % Extraction speed 8.6 X Track quality 99.9 % Test CRC B4B75F0B Copy CRC B4B75F0B Accurately ripped (confidence 1) [1086873E] (AR v2) Copy OK All tracks accurately ripped No errors occurred End of status report ---- CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.4 [CTDB TOCID: KRg2E1b6rboVS9Je6IUY8Otlf6A-] found Submit result: KRg2E1b6rboVS9Je6IUY8Otlf6A- has been confirmed Track | CTDB Status 1 | (4/4) Accurately ripped 2 | (4/4) Accurately ripped 3 | (4/4) Accurately ripped 4 | (4/4) Accurately ripped 5 | (4/4) Accurately ripped 6 | (4/4) Accurately ripped 7 | (4/4) Accurately ripped 8 | (4/4) Accurately ripped ==== Log checksum 5C643438E8F48355AEB04FCC2C7F489D02E20EF3614D5562C46C11BC27B81E7F ====
REM GENRE "Progressive Rock" REM DATE 2010 REM DISCID 710F7008 REM COMMENT "ExactAudioCopy v1.0b3" PERFORMER "Fatal Fusion" TITLE "Land of the Sun" FILE "01 - Land of the Sun.wav" WAVE TRACK 01 AUDIO TITLE "Land of the Sun" PERFORMER "Fatal Fusion" INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 02 AUDIO TITLE "Cry No More" PERFORMER "Fatal Fusion" INDEX 00 09:14:00 FILE "02 - Cry No More.wav" WAVE INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 03 AUDIO TITLE "Promises" PERFORMER "Fatal Fusion" INDEX 00 03:53:56 FILE "03 - Promises.wav" WAVE INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 04 AUDIO TITLE "Love in the Sky" PERFORMER "Fatal Fusion" INDEX 00 06:26:00 FILE "04 - Love in the Sky.wav" WAVE INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 05 AUDIO TITLE "Shot to the Ground" PERFORMER "Fatal Fusion" INDEX 00 06:56:00 FILE "05 - Shot to the Ground.wav" WAVE INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 06 AUDIO TITLE "Remember" PERFORMER "Fatal Fusion" INDEX 00 05:40:00 FILE "06 - Remember.wav" WAVE INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 07 AUDIO TITLE "Broken Man" PERFORMER "Fatal Fusion" INDEX 00 05:10:00 FILE "07 - Broken Man.wav" WAVE INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 08 AUDIO TITLE "Out to the Fields" PERFORMER "Fatal Fusion" INDEX 00 12:34:00 FILE "08 - Out to the Fields.wav" WAVE INDEX 01 00:00:00
Land of the Sun is one of those albums that I loved right from the start. Some albums take time to grow but this one is immediate while still retaining lots of progressive moments throughout. The band plays '70s inspired classic rock with heavy doses of symphonic prog and is as catchy as anything I have heard in a long time. Some of the band's influences include Deep Purple, Kansas and Led Zeppelin to name but a few.
The album contains eight tracks with a couple over ten minutes in length. Some of the shorter tracks are a little less complicated but are very well played and quite accessible with great melodies and strong song writing. The longer compositions allow the band to stretch out musically and are quite progressive in nature yet still very listenable. Classic sounding guitar riffs and riveting solos are spread throughout the CD and are a large part of the band's sound. The keyboards of Engebretsen are ever present, including vintage sounds of Mellotron and Hammond giving the songs a real '70s flair. The lead vocals of Grøntvedt are also well done. He has a soulful, bluesy voice that you do not often hear in progressive music but I think it works quite well. To put it simply, there are no weak links here, which is not often the case, especially with newer bands. The album starts strong with "Land of the Sun", a melodic blending of vintage keys and emotive guitar playing that subtly reminded me of Santana. It is just an excellent retro sounding progressive rock song.
With "Cry No More" the band veers more towards classic heavy rock reminding me of '70s Max Webster, in particular the song "In Context of the Moon".
"Promises" starts with a folky medieval sound before turning in a prog rock direction with swirling Hammond and backdrops of Mellotron. The last two songs, "Broken Man" and "Out to the Fields" are the album's epic tracks with the former drifting between mellow acoustic guitar and heavier sections featuring raging Hammond and soaring guitar while the latter is an instrumental showcasing the band's spacier side with parts reminding me Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.
This is another stellar debut album from a band that has a great future. They have raised the bar so high it will be interesting to hear what they come out with next.
[by Jon Neudorf, seaoftranquility.org]
Носитель: CD (Album) Страна - производитель диска: Norway Издатель (лейбл): Karisma Records Номер по каталогу: KAR077 Продолжительность: 1:07:28 Источник (релизер): Моя коллекция, мой рип Трэклист:
1. City Of Zerych (18:02):
- a) Welcome
- b) The Dark Lord
- c) Falling Into Darkness
- d) The Shaman
- e) Confrontation
- f) Fall To Rise
2. Halls Of Amenti (8:58)
3. The Divine Comedy (14:11):
- a) Dante's Descend
- b) Inferno
- c) Purgatory
- d) Paradise
4. Tears I've Cried (8:43)
5. The Ancient Tale (17:34):
- a) Eos
- b) Helias
- c) Astraeos
- d) Selene
Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011 EAC extraction logfile from 3. October 2017, 23:17 Fatal Fusion / The Ancient Tale Used drive : _NEC DVD_RW ND-3540A Adapter: 1 ID: 0 Read mode : Secure Utilize accurate stream : Yes Defeat audio cache : Yes Make use of C2 pointers : No Read offset correction : 48 Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000 Gap handling : Appended to previous track Used output format : User Defined Encoder Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s Quality : High Add ID3 tag : Yes Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE Additional command line options : -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" %hascover%--picture="%coverfile%"%hascover% %source% -o %dest% TOC of the extracted CD Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector --------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 0:00.00 | 18:04.66 | 0 | 81365 2 | 18:04.66 | 9:00.64 | 81366 | 121929 3 | 27:05.55 | 14:13.54 | 121930 | 185958 4 | 41:19.34 | 8:47.09 | 185959 | 225492 5 | 50:06.43 | 17:34.69 | 225493 | 304611 Track 1 Filename F:\Music\olaf_alien\Fatal Fusion - The Ancient Tale (2013, Karisma)\01 - City of Zerych.wav Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00 Peak level 98.9 % Extraction speed 6.1 X Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC A4FBC0BC Copy CRC A4FBC0BC Accurately ripped (confidence 7) [B44C1BE2] (AR v2) Copy OK Track 2 Filename F:\Music\olaf_alien\Fatal Fusion - The Ancient Tale (2013, Karisma)\02 - Halls of Amenti.wav Pre-gap length 0:00:02.30 Peak level 98.9 % Extraction speed 7.3 X Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC 8C26A6B3 Copy CRC 8C26A6B3 Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [3C675F1C] (AR v2) Copy OK Track 3 Filename F:\Music\olaf_alien\Fatal Fusion - The Ancient Tale (2013, Karisma)\03 - The Divine Comedy.wav Pre-gap length 0:00:02.19 Peak level 98.8 % Extraction speed 8.4 X Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC B89332F4 Copy CRC B89332F4 Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [995D960A] (AR v2) Copy OK Track 4 Filename F:\Music\olaf_alien\Fatal Fusion - The Ancient Tale (2013, Karisma)\04 - Tears I've Cried.wav Pre-gap length 0:00:02.51 Peak level 98.8 % Extraction speed 9.0 X Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC E729BE2B Copy CRC E729BE2B Accurately ripped (confidence 8) [C3E054B4] (AR v2) Copy OK Track 5 Filename F:\Music\olaf_alien\Fatal Fusion - The Ancient Tale (2013, Karisma)\05 - The Ancient Tale.wav Pre-gap length 0:00:03.59 Peak level 98.9 % Extraction speed 10.0 X Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC 40506AA6 Copy CRC 40506AA6 Accurately ripped (confidence 9) [C99C2FC1] (AR v2) Copy OK All tracks accurately ripped No errors occurred End of status report ---- CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.4 [CTDB TOCID: Xd3ee2j0WTgOz881znWgVMT.t24-] found Submit result: Xd3ee2j0WTgOz881znWgVMT.t24- has been confirmed Track | CTDB Status 1 | (3/3) Accurately ripped 2 | (3/3) Accurately ripped 3 | (3/3) Accurately ripped 4 | (3/3) Accurately ripped 5 | (3/3) Accurately ripped ==== Log checksum F06506C3EA25E221620002DDBAE1F98D6D961849F3DA058ED023F26CE0E1CFB8 ====
REM GENRE "Progressive Rock" REM DATE 2013 REM DISCID 3B0FDD05 REM COMMENT "ExactAudioCopy v1.0b3" PERFORMER "Fatal Fusion" TITLE "The Ancient Tale" FILE "01 - City of Zerych.wav" WAVE TRACK 01 AUDIO TITLE "City of Zerych" PERFORMER "Fatal Fusion" INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 02 AUDIO TITLE "Halls of Amenti" PERFORMER "Fatal Fusion" INDEX 00 18:02:36 FILE "02 - Halls of Amenti.wav" WAVE INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 03 AUDIO TITLE "The Divine Comedy" PERFORMER "Fatal Fusion" INDEX 00 08:58:45 FILE "03 - The Divine Comedy.wav" WAVE INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 04 AUDIO TITLE "Tears I've Cried" PERFORMER "Fatal Fusion" INDEX 00 14:11:03 FILE "04 - Tears I've Cried.wav" WAVE INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 05 AUDIO TITLE "The Ancient Tale" PERFORMER "Fatal Fusion" INDEX 00 08:43:25 FILE "05 - The Ancient Tale.wav" WAVE INDEX 01 00:00:00
Norway's Fatal Fusion return with their second album, and first for Karisma Records, The Ancient Tale. The band's debut offering, Land Of The Sun, unashamedly harked back to the days when Deep Purple and Uriah Heep verged into Proggier territory, via the odd slice of Kansas and even a touch of Genesis. For album number two things are different, although not radically. If anything the keyboard grandiosity of Kansas has slid more to the forefront, with the heavier side of FF now more content to reveal itself through short bursts of Stig Selnes's guitar and the odd occasion where bassist Lasse Lie and drummer Audun Engebretsen step things up a gear. The other area where Fatal Fusion have stretched out is in the length of the songs, with the shortest of the five on show clocking in around the nine minute mark, while the longest two approach twenty. It is a clever move and one which allows a neat "jam" feel to permeate through much of the album and also provides swathes of room for Hammondy-madness and wanton guitars. Yet the overriding vibe on T-A-T is a restrained one, something Knut Erik Grontvedt's vocals add to expertly, his voice reminding a little of the rounded, relaxed tones of Martin Orford. The six part "City Of Zerych" sets the scene neatly through a mix of strident riffs, elongated instrumental sections (a feature throughout the whole album) and keyboard incursions. This leads to a song with vast scope and a true variety of emotions, although never at the expense of the cohesiveness required to hold the interest. Fans of the likes of Presto Ballet will lap up the luscious feel, with the production from Herbrand Larsen of Enslaved intentionally restrained and retro. The same ethos allowing the equally roaming "The Ancient Tale" and "The Divine Comedy" to build and diminish in scope, often working up to a crescendo, only to back off and head in another equally captivating direction. Touches of Blues and Jazz, as well as some more obvious Classical influences burrow along beneath the Progressive Hard Rock surface, offering up clever changes of focus and emphasis. Although for some the lengthy instrumental workouts may prove just a touch indulgent and over the top - although others will clap their hands with glee. Fatal Fusion have continued the excellent work of their debut, with The Ancient Tale once more marking them out as one of the more accomplished and interesting exponents amongst the new crop of 70s Progressive Hard Rockers. If they continue in this vein, they'll soon become a true force to be reckoned with.
[by Steven Reid, seaoftranquility.org]
Носитель: CD (Album) Страна - производитель диска: Norway Год издания оригинала: 2016 Издатель (лейбл): Karisma Records Номер по каталогу: KAR122 Продолжительность: 56:20 Источник (релизер): Моя коллекция, мой рип Трэклист:
1. The Gates Of Ishtar (2:29)
2. Shadow Of The King (7:40)
3. Forgotten One (6:08)
4. Astral Flight (5:33)
5. The Emperor's Letter (7:20)
6. Endless Ocean Blue (11:36)
- a) Meditation
- b) Ascension
- c) Realization
7. Total Absence (15:30):
- a) Empty Houses, Empty Streets
- b) Losing Faith
- c) Night Must Fall
- d) United We Stand
Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011 EAC extraction logfile from 4. October 2017, 0:15 Fatal Fusion / Total Absence Used drive : _NEC DVD_RW ND-3540A Adapter: 1 ID: 0 Read mode : Secure Utilize accurate stream : Yes Defeat audio cache : Yes Make use of C2 pointers : No Read offset correction : 48 Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000 Gap handling : Appended to previous track Used output format : User Defined Encoder Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s Quality : High Add ID3 tag : Yes Command line compressor : C:\Program Files (x86)\Exact Audio Copy\FLAC\FLAC.EXE Additional command line options : -6 -V -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" %hascover%--picture="%coverfile%"%hascover% %source% -o %dest% TOC of the extracted CD Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector --------------------------------------------------------- 1 | 0:00.00 | 2:29.63 | 0 | 11237 2 | 2:29.63 | 7:41.35 | 11238 | 45847 3 | 10:11.23 | 6:10.58 | 45848 | 73655 4 | 16:22.06 | 5:34.01 | 73656 | 98706 5 | 21:56.07 | 7:20.68 | 98707 | 131774 6 | 29:17.00 | 11:36.70 | 131775 | 184044 7 | 40:53.70 | 15:30.63 | 184045 | 253857 Track 1 Filename F:\Music\olaf_alien\Fatal Fusion - Total Absence (2016, Karisma)\01 - Gates of Ishtar.wav Pre-gap length 0:00:02.00 Peak level 98.6 % Extraction speed 3.8 X Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC 527A93B2 Copy CRC 527A93B2 Track not present in AccurateRip database Copy OK Track 2 Filename F:\Music\olaf_alien\Fatal Fusion - Total Absence (2016, Karisma)\02 - Shadow of the King.wav Pre-gap length 0:00:00.09 Peak level 98.8 % Extraction speed 4.6 X Track quality 99.9 % Test CRC 818E76B1 Copy CRC 818E76B1 Track not present in AccurateRip database Copy OK Track 3 Filename F:\Music\olaf_alien\Fatal Fusion - Total Absence (2016, Karisma)\03 - Forgotten One.wav Pre-gap length 0:00:01.32 Peak level 98.8 % Extraction speed 5.7 X Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC 3539A7B3 Copy CRC 3539A7B3 Track not present in AccurateRip database Copy OK Track 4 Filename F:\Music\olaf_alien\Fatal Fusion - Total Absence (2016, Karisma)\04 - Astral Flight.wav Pre-gap length 0:00:01.59 Peak level 98.8 % Extraction speed 6.0 X Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC F5C8EF07 Copy CRC F5C8EF07 Track not present in AccurateRip database Copy OK Track 5 Filename F:\Music\olaf_alien\Fatal Fusion - Total Absence (2016, Karisma)\05 - The Emperor's Letter.wav Pre-gap length 0:00:00.26 Peak level 98.8 % Extraction speed 6.0 X Track quality 99.9 % Test CRC C6E58365 Copy CRC C6E58365 Track not present in AccurateRip database Copy OK Track 6 Filename F:\Music\olaf_alien\Fatal Fusion - Total Absence (2016, Karisma)\06 - Endless Ocean Blue.wav Peak level 98.8 % Extraction speed 7.6 X Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC 47B146D6 Copy CRC 47B146D6 Track not present in AccurateRip database Copy OK Track 7 Filename F:\Music\olaf_alien\Fatal Fusion - Total Absence (2016, Karisma)\07 - Total Absence.wav Peak level 98.8 % Extraction speed 8.4 X Track quality 100.0 % Test CRC 81DE9911 Copy CRC 81DE9911 Track not present in AccurateRip database Copy OK None of the tracks are present in the AccurateRip database No errors occurred End of status report ---- CUETools DB Plugin V2.1.4 [CTDB TOCID: BE0hk5Gy5pIZbYywzbOS03kFuDU-] found Submit result: BE0hk5Gy5pIZbYywzbOS03kFuDU- has been confirmed Track | CTDB Status 1 | (5/5) Accurately ripped 2 | (5/5) Accurately ripped 3 | (5/5) Accurately ripped 4 | (5/5) Accurately ripped 5 | (5/5) Accurately ripped 6 | (5/5) Accurately ripped 7 | (5/5) Accurately ripped ==== Log checksum B0D7ECBEC3A6ED7006B1AE299730CC4B0040E29B85009749AE7328C7FB392776 ====
REM GENRE "Progressive Rock" REM DATE 2016 REM DISCID 5B0D3807 REM COMMENT "ExactAudioCopy v1.0b3" PERFORMER "Fatal Fusion" TITLE "Total Absence" FILE "01 - Gates of Ishtar.wav" WAVE TRACK 01 AUDIO TITLE "Gates of Ishtar" PERFORMER "Fatal Fusion" INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 02 AUDIO TITLE "Shadow of the King" PERFORMER "Fatal Fusion" INDEX 00 02:29:54 FILE "02 - Shadow of the King.wav" WAVE INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 03 AUDIO TITLE "Forgotten One" PERFORMER "Fatal Fusion" INDEX 00 07:40:03 FILE "03 - Forgotten One.wav" WAVE INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 04 AUDIO TITLE "Astral Flight" PERFORMER "Fatal Fusion" INDEX 00 06:08:74 FILE "04 - Astral Flight.wav" WAVE INDEX 01 00:00:00 TRACK 05 AUDIO TITLE "The Emperor's Letter" PERFORMER "Fatal Fusion" INDEX 00 05:33:50 FILE "05 - The Emperor's Letter.wav" WAVE INDEX 01 00:00:00 FILE "06 - Endless Ocean Blue.wav" WAVE TRACK 06 AUDIO TITLE "Endless Ocean Blue" PERFORMER "Fatal Fusion" INDEX 01 00:00:00 FILE "07 - Total Absence.wav" WAVE TRACK 07 AUDIO TITLE "Total Absence" PERFORMER "Fatal Fusion" INDEX 01 00:00:00
Fatal Fusion return for what is now their third album; hailing from Oslo in Norway they released their debut Land of the Sun in 2010, following that in 2013 with The Ancient Tale, both receiving great reviews.
Total Absence is a darker and more epic release, but they continue to pay homage to the progressive and classic rock bands of the seventies, blending different genres – from metal, blues, jazz and hard rock through to psychedelia – to create a unique sound. Indeed, they cite broad musical influences from ’60s and ’70s sources, including King Crimson, Rainbow, Camel, Pink Floyd, ELP, Yes, Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple, and also some ’80s and ’90s influences like Anekdoten, Spock’s Beard, IQ and Marillion. This is a long list and I cannot say that all of these influences can be heard in their music, which is a good thing as they have managed to develop a sound of their own. There is a clear Norwegian tone within the music, which borders on the heavy, more straight ahead rock, with progressive touches added. This is just my opinion and I am sure that others will hear things that I have not. This is an impressive album which demonstrates Fatal Fusion’s continuing development. The album kicks off with the atmospheric Gates of Ishar, the keyboards giving an Arabic influence to proceedings while the drums adopt an almost military march style, a little reminiscent of Magma’s Christian Vander. This segues straight into the second track, Shadow of the King; here the influences are more obvious, the Arabic feel of the keyboards continuing before the song takes on a Zeppelin/Rainbow vibe. The instrumental Astral Flight shows a different side to the band, here Uriah Heep meets a kind of jazz/rock fusion with some great keyboard and guitar work as the track moves along at a good pace. The band’s progressive chops are ably demonstrated on the closing two tracks, which are twelve and sixteen minutes long respectively. Endless Blue Ocean opens with guitar accompanied by atmospheric keyboards, slowly building until bass and vocals join in, with the drums making their presence felt. There is some excellent Hammond work here from Elend Engebretsen, towards the latter half of the song the Hammond accompanies just the vocals before the guitar returns for a great solo to drive the song to its conclusion, where it ends with some sound effects to segue into the title track. This song has the most progressive touches to it, a slow burner with a symphonic feel at times, a couple of keyboard solos and great guitar work towards the end. This is an album that provides excellent songwriting and performances, the use of some vintage instruments gives it an almost nostalgic feel at times, but the production brings the overall feel right up to date. There is some great interplay between the keyboards and guitar, which are ably supported by the bass and drums throughout the album. I was not previously aware of Fatal Fusion’s music before this review, but what I have heard here makes me want to investigate further.
[by Mel Allen, theprogressiveaspect.net]
