Review Summary: The Folk Jazz album for Metal Heads... never did armenian post bop sounded so heavy with a jazz trio
So, who in hell is Tigran Hamasyan? Well, he is an armenian jazz pianist, who would like to front a thrash metal band (his words not mine, look it up). A fantastic modern jazz piano player, that embraces is armenian tradition and trys to push the envelope a little further.
Now, why did I rated Mockroot so high? Because it's astonoshing... the only reason it isn't a perfect 5, it's because I don't understand armenian and I don't know what the heck is going on in some songs.
- The album starts with a ballad, To Love, with the armenian influences on top, for me one of the weakest songs, but amazing none the less. Next we encounter 2 armenian jazz songs (Song For Melan & Rafik & Kars 1), filled with djenty rythms, amazing musicianship and incredible melodies.
- When we arrive at double-Faced, we realize what this album it's all about, it's about making the ungrooveble groove and put some nice melodies in some strange chord progressions... with some electronica trown in the solo section, you are visualizing what the future of jazz will be like... One of my favorites, without a doubt
- Then comes the melodic The Roads that bring me to you, it's filled with a feminine voice (although tigran sings, I think this is the chick from shadow theater), it's just a melodic epic, so you can rest your ears of the madness that precided and brace yourself for what comes next. Next it comes the piano solo Lilac, that for me it's probably the weak song (every good album as one), it's something I think it belongs in his older albums, not this one.
- ENTERTAIN ME, my favourite, the drums are metal, the piano it's insane, the bass is a perfect glue, and this is only the intro, then it comes the riffing, heavy as TesseracT, and equally amazing, some piano melodies are thrown around as the bass starts to build up the atmosphere, and then BAM riffs again... I really love this song.
- The Apple and the Orchad, it's another ballad, the melody is clearly armenian, but the chords are jazzy, tigran sings in this one, and it gives a sad mood to the album after the entaining entertain me, it's an amazing track as well, I one of the best ballads in my opinion, it as a rising action that gives it an epic feel. Kars 2 it's just the continuation of Kars 1, the melody and chord progression are very similar, but it's more jazzy.
- to Negate starts with piano and tigran singing, then to evolve to a proggy world of rythm, whith tigran voice givin it a tantric feel, some riffs are thown, and proggy stuff returns again, at the end there's a dark mode as an introduction to the Grid. The Grid starts with an amazing intro, very spacy and grounded at the same time, making the ungrooveble groove, with piano licks, and djenty stuff raining all over your years, then it comes an amazing solo section, where the bass player uses some effects to give it a more modern touch, the solo section ends, and the outro is like a filler to glue together the Grid to Out of The Grid, where the crazyness returns, with riffs and synthetizers making a futuristic sound in the beggining and then metal riffs on the piano and bass... the song ends without warning, and we are listening to a beautifull piece all of a suden... Amazing Trip wasn't it?
