Release Date: 4th
July 2014
Label: Indie
Elabaural is a three piece instrumental prog metal band,
formed originally as DepthCharge in 2003, but changed their name to Elabaural
in 2005. This came about after the original band “lost” their vocalist, and
subsequent material written was channeled towards instrumental music. At the
moment the band are only a 2 piece as they are currently searching for someone
to take over the drum stool, and I would hazard a guess that the two members of
the band are related, as Arran MacInnes plays guitar and Alister MacInnes plays
bass. The band have cited a variety of influences including Dream Theater,
Opeth, Circus Maximus, Rush and Porcupine Tree.
A
Journey of Intrigue is a 10 track album with a total playing
time of around 71 minutes. The tracks vary a fair bit in length with 3 tracks
in excess of 10 minutes, with track 4, “BlackJack,” the longest at 20:33
minutes and the shortest track on offer is track 6, “Adrift” at only just over
the 2 minute mark (2:10).
The opening track on A
Journey of Intrigue is “Genesis” (5:36) and starts with some superb solo
guitar work with little phrases and runs before the cymbals give a little
backdrop to proceedings and the bass notes become more regular. The track
continues in the same vein and is hugely atmospheric. The whole sound changes
around the 4 minute mark, becoming a more driving style with the drums and bass
pushing the track along. An excellent starting track and bodes well for the
upcoming tracks.
“Precipice” (4:47) is started with some atmospheric
electronic beeps before the bass has a gentle passage, then the guitar slams
into action. Just after the minute mark the driving guitar riff has taken over
and there are passages which simply thunder along. I did find that around the 3
minute mark, my attention was beginning to drift a little as the track seemed
to be losing a bit of direction. An excellent little guitar phrase drew the
attention back, but then the track returned to earlier ground and was then off.
The third, and strangely titled, track, “Population,
Montgomery” (4:20) is more like the
opening track with some exquisite guitar playing, backed up superbly by the
rhythm engine within the band. Around the halfway point there is a very jazzy
laid back feel to the track, which works well and this then builds slowly until
the track takes it’s leave.
The other shorter tracks to be found on A Journey of Intrigue, “Adrift” (2:10),
“Suspended In A Painting” (6:58), “Mind Cry” (2:17) and “Vorcha” (3:04), all
maintain the listeners interest in different ways. “Adrift” succeeds by being
an almost Spanish/classical styled guitar led track, “Suspended In A Painting”
moves the tempo up a few notches highlighting more of the guitar playing by
Arran, “”Mind Cry” is a slightly slower jazzy styled number and “Vorcha” is a
slab of power chords and chunky guitar riffs.
The main disappointment I found with A Journey of Intrigue was that the long tracks, “BlackJack”
(20:33), “Trial By Torrent” (10:15) and “The Raid” (11:27) tended to suffer a
similar fate to track 2, “Precipice,” in that the interest level wasn’t
maintained. All 3 long tracks show some excellent skill by the musicians, as
witnessed in the short tracks, but stretched out to over 10 minutes the
guitar/bass/drums complement didn’t provide enough of a variation to maintain
the listener interest. Too many times I found myself waiting for a vocalist to
take the track onwards.
An instrumental album of any genre needs to have
something that makes it stand out, basically something that “grabs the listener
by the throat and shouts Listen!” My personal opinion is that an instrumental
album is a very difficult album to be successful with because of this.
For the most part, I found A Journey of Intrigue to be a very good debut album, as far as the
short tracks were concerned and I would be keen to catch a follow up release to
see where Elabaural are going as they show great potential. Arran can certainly
handle a guitar and the supporting bass playing of Alister and drums, by person
or machine unknown, complements the guitar work. The album has great
atmospheric short tracks, and perhaps if the long tracks had been curtailed a
little, bearing in mind the 71 minute playing time, and an album of length 50
minutes had been produced, I think I would have been better satisfied.
As always, the views I give are personal views and are
likely to differ from many other people, so I would suggest giving A Journey of Intrigue a few listens and
decide for yourself.
3.5/5
Stars
Key
Tracks: Genesis, Adrift, Suspended In A
Painting
Jim “The Ancient One” Lawson-Sr. Reviewer Prog
Rock Music Talk
October 16, 2014
Review
Provided By Prog Rock Music Talk
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