Review Summary: Eidolon is a grown-up and improved sophomore album from a band quickly maturing into one of the best modern progressive rock bands around.
Rishloo are an independent progressive rock act from Seattle. In 2004 they released their debut album
Terras Fames to small amounts of critical acclaim. Fuelled by poetic lyrics and dark themes, coupled with the lengthy track times,
Terras Fames was heavily influenced by Tool and garnered a small fan base due to this. With their sophomore effort
Eidolon, Rishloo have moved away from their comfort zone, dismissing the large dependency on influences such as Tool and branching away to a more unique sound. With heavy hitting drum beats and uncommon tempo changes
Eidolon contains all of the staples of a generic progressive rock release, without the wankery associated with certain acts in the genre. Simply put, Rishloo are now the band Tool could be, if it wasn’t for the pretentious overindulgences of Maynard and co.
As mentioned Rishloo have decided to drop the idle fancies found throughout
Terras Fames; indeed one of the major faults with their debut was the ambiguity of it all. At the time Rishloo were a band full of ideas, but with no structure, and the music on their debut showed this. However throughout
Eidolon Rishloo manage to omit the penchant for technical excesses they showed on their debut, accomplishing a more rounded sound in the process. This isn’t to say that the music is bland as none of the instrumental prowess shown on
Terras Fames has been lost, merely harnessed with much of the focus going into song structure.
Pandora and
Zdzislaw are both vastly superior arrangements to anything on
Terras Fames, and the technical accomplishment; the meticulously structured layers, manage to give a grander feeling than anything on the band’s debut.
Another attribute that aids to the feeling of completeness is
Eidolons track arrangement. The albums configuration does enough to keep the music from getting stale with the songs being grouped into clusters of no more than three, with shorter instrumental passages splitting the groups up. The groups themselves often contain a versatile mixture of songs which keeps the album from dragging and all contain a standout track to keep the album interesting until the end. Less adventurous tracks become easier to digest when cleverly placed next to some of the more over-the-top material, and vice versa allowing a pleasant listening experience. The instrumental passages are also far from filler, often offering attractive textures to the album while allowing swift changes in tempo from one song to another.
Vocalist Andrew Mailloux has the tendency to over sing on large portions of this record, leading to some screechy off keys and the occasional bout of melisma that all but ruin occasional moments on the record. Album closers
Disco Biscuit and
Shades are the most notable examples of this problem, with great instrumental build ups ruined by the tense, wobbly vocals. However when Mailloux gets away with the straining it can lead to remarkable results. First single and early highlight
Freaks And Animals also shows him reaching for notes clearly out of his range, yet by an extraordinary coincidence, the off-keys he reaches serve only to strengthen the track, harmonising well with the oblique guitar and funky rhythm section.
Of course, it is rare for an album spanning 14 tracks and 55 minutes to be completely devoid of filler. Thus it is only fair to accept that
Eidolon has a certain amount of mediocrity confined within its depths.
To Tame The Temporal Shrew relies too much upon Mailloux’s vocal performance with very subdued instrumental contribution. The slow build up to the hard hitting climax seems unnecessary, and whilst it adds yet another variation upon the bands formula it doesn’t work as well as the tracks that surround it. Similarly poor vocals and unimaginative musicianship plague
Shades, a track that starts promisingly, only to stall midway through. Couple this with the very brief and awkward hidden track that occurs after a minute or so of silence and you are left with a disappointing album closer, unfitting for such an otherwise solid release.
Eidolon is a grown-up sophomore album from a band quickly maturing into one of the best modern progressive rock bands around. Learning from debut album
Terras Fames the quartet has improved their sound into something much more engaged and in doing so have found a unique niche. The overwhelming reliance on borrowing ideas and inspiration off of some of the genres leading acts has thankfully suppressed and while a few tracks, notably
Eidolon Alpha among others, still give off a by-the-book aura the overall feeling is that of subtler influences. While there are faults within the album, it is still a step up from
Terras Fames and if the band can continue on a similar trajectory when they release their third studio album later this year then there is nothing stopping them from becoming major stars in the not too distant future.
Recommended Tracks
Freaks And Animals
El Empe
Omega
Zdzislaw
Overall 4.0 Excellent
