Review Summary: Rising from the ashes of a stagnant genre, this is the hidden gem of 2021 Prog.
How many times I threw around the very weird sounding name of this German trio (apparently a pun on “acoustic” - I honestly do not get it), as one example of bands that should be bigger than they are, but are not because of “reasons” (...It might be the name). Their second LP, “Silence of the Sirens” from 2015, ended up on my personal top 10 of the year, yet it hardly got any press aside from some very niche prog fanzines. I saw the band live at Germany’s Euroblast (arguably the mecca of European prog in the pre-COVID reality) and was pretty much sold instantly on their spin on modern progressive rock that could be defined as “what if we were very heavy, melodical, and techy, but also yeah, like, did not really fancy distorted guitars and stuff?”.
The main attraction of the band is indeed the stylistic choice to cut out electric and instead focus their hard prog sound (a la Agent Fresco, “S.C.I.E.N.C.E.”-era Incubus, Arcane Roots) on the acoustic wizardry of guitar-maestro Johannes Weik, whose flaming staccato playing-style helps to set them aside and stand out from the Axe FX bedroom guitar crowds that have been so popular lately. And it is truly a pleasure to listen to such a unique spin to this type of music; very difficult to not be dumbfounded by the tapping speed on some of the fastest fingerpicking runs of the disc (see the bridge in “Calling Nemesis”), or by the very tight strumming showcased in tracks such as “...To Reveal a Grieving Goddess”.
Now here reviewer must admit he gets easily impressed by fast guitar players (mostly due to sheer ignorance), but knows a thing or two about drumming; and Johannes’ brother, Florian (one talented family over here) is a top-tier talent, responsible for keeping precise ghost-note filled beats, flurries of very complex double bass patterns and chops for days that keep order fantastically in the midst of abrupt time-shifts (see “Synopsis” constant twist and turns, or the stop-and-go madness of “Epilogue”) that the very calculated songwriting of the band possesses.
So, what do these guys talk about in the LP, and what the heck is a “Hephioz”? It would not be a prog disc I guess if the lyrics were not about some mythical immortal bird’s descent to face its own destiny and demise. But if stories about suicidal phoenixes are not your thing, well just test the disc out with the spazzy madness of the disc triptych opener; the Germans (stereotypically) waste no time and swoop in with their brand of very heavy prog, detailing through acoustic sweeps and screams the descent of the firebird protagonist in opener “T.R.U.T.H” and close off the intro with personal favorite “Synopsis”, encapsulating most of the melodic themes that will be encountered throughout the remaining of the disc, with sudden breaks and a smorgasbord of emotional themes thrown around its five-minute timing (the drum-break rim beat at the one-minute mark is stellar).
The rest of the disc just swiftly flies like its own bird-person character, smooth as a German buttery Weissbier, and although I have quite a few remarks with the interpretation of Julian Helms (the singer, and arguably weak link considering the praise I just gave to the other two fellow band members) in some pieces here and there – this is one of the quickest hours of acoustic math-frenzy you did not know you needed in 2021, and hands down one of the candidates to best progressive disc of the year.
