It was only just 2 years ago that the band Resistor released their self titled album. Now for 2010, they released a new album called Rise. The line-up is the same as the debut. Everything has improved since the last album, especially in the composition and production.
From the opening track, “The Secret Of The Open Sky” (7:00), you know you’re in for some top quality aggressive progressive rock. This is one of my favorites off the album. In a way it could be deemed the band’s signature song at this point in time. I find myself sometimes humming this song long after I finished listening to the whole album.
“Beyond This Masquerade” (4:40) brings things down a notch for a bitter-sweet ballad. This shows off the band’s delicate side while not being wimpy or sappy sounding.
“Spaceghetti” (5:19) is one part spaghetti western and one part space opera, combined together for a very in-your-face production. I think this is one Resistor’s best instrumentals from their entire catalog. I can picture this as a great opening song for a live performance.
“Ether“ (5:43) has a dark feel to it with the way the instrumentation and lyrics sound on this song. About halfway, the song gains some power, especially in the guitar sound. This is another of my favorites off the band and from all the Resistor albums.
“Mimosa” (16:04) is the first and only true epic of the album, since it flows endlessly from start to finish. It begins where the music seems to be subdued while feeling the power of the music. It goes on like a rollercoaster ride with it’s subtle changes over the duration of the 16 minutes. Around the 11 minute mark, the band goes into a jazzy format then slowly returns to the subdued nature of the beginning but with some more sounds.
“The Land Of No Groove” (39:22) a ten part suite that really can‘t be called a “epic“ due to the song being broken up into ten parts. I honest feel that tracks like this one should have been mixed as one continuous track rather that keeping it as a 10 part suite. This is one I‘d love to hear live (Hopefully Rosfest would pick them up for a future performance.).
The subject matter is somewhat close to Kevin Gilbert’s final album, Shaming Of The True but Resistor’s song is in more fantastical and fun to listen to. This song or suite, has a lot of memorable parts throughout the duration of the almost 40 minutes.
Some of the highlights of this suite are the third part, “Jagged Mountain” [4:59] which features Steve singing in a narrative. It also features some humorous lyrics (missing from most acts today).
Next is the fourth part “Land’s End” [3:48], a bitter-sweet and memorable acoustic based song . Part six “Sea Monster Battle” [5:29] has a heavy rock vibe to it and gradually rises over the duration to where Steve yells out, “Barry vs. The Sea Monster”. You can see Steve’s humor which again is sadly missing. Too many bands and fans are so tightly wound up in too serious of subject matter. This is sadly missing in most music today. This is one of my favorites of the album and song.
Then part seven, “The Isle Appears” [2:17] starts off in a jazzy vibe and continue it throughout the track. Next up is part eight, “Convincing The Islanders” [5:01] has a subtle beginning and continues along the mellow vibe. The drumming has a soft almost jazz-fusion based. Halfway through the song gets aggressive which adds flavor to the song. This set of songs are some more of my favorites off this song.
Part nine “Sailing Home” [3:07] and part ten’ “Groove Revolution” [4:55] could be deemed the epilog of this epic suite with the latter having a funk/prog based sound. By the time the album is over, I find myself wanting to hear it again (which is a rare thing for me with today‘s progressive music scene).
In closing, I have to say this one of the most enjoyable album I’ve had the pleasure of hearing. There’s no dud or filler in this album. I feel if I got this when it was originally released in 2010, that it would have been on my list of my favorite new releases of that year. My conclusion each time I hear this album leads me to say it’s highly recommended, dare I say, masterpiece.
Reviewed by Ron Fuchs on May 20th, 2011
