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"I think it's the best group of people I've played with in many, many years..."
With these words, Mark Shelton introduced the sixteenth album from Manilla Road, the second produced by ZYX, which also released the previous Mysterium in 2013. That album had made notable progress in terms of sound quality, although from a compositional perspective, it showed some changes that not everyone appreciated, starting with a sparser and more predictable drumming (often oriented on mid-tempos), and a vaguely more anonymous "climate" that did not manage to win everyone over.
In reality, Mysterium was a good album, played by a lineup still somewhat raw in terms of rhythm sections, with Neudi and Joshua Castillo not yet perfectly integrated with the band's sonic philosophy; a gap that, however, gradually dwindled over a few months spent touring, playing the old tracks. This dive into the past allowed the new members to play this The Blessed Curse at their best, with the bass resuming its dark threads, while the drumming became once again booming, intricate, and unpredictable, firmly re-establishing itself as a trademark of the band. Thus, the duels between drums and guitar can continue their eternal and perpetual challenge, imposing and in great style. All this has been immortalized by an even more compact production, in terms of sound equalization, and by a majestic tracklist, structured in a double album, with a total duration of about 100 minutes of music, within which you will find the classic style of the band, along with some unexpected novelties that will leave many of you flabbergasted.
The sound of the Road has always been both traditional and seminal at the same time, often featuring self-references that are revisited from one album to another. At the same time, the sound manages to revolutionize and experiment with new solutions and sounds every time. If you're familiar with the old albums, think of, for example, Crystal Logic and Open The Gates: who would dare say they sound the same way? Or still, if on one hand, the massive epic metal of The Deluge is tinged with seventies prog nuances, Out of The Abyss manages to even present thrash-oriented episodes. The same goes for the more recent albums: if Spiral Castle revisits old heavy/doom metal, adorning it with psychedelic nuances, Playground of the Damned showcases a dark-oriented side never before heard.
This boring spiel has served only to silence those who claim (luckily, not many) that the Road has always been the same for thirty-six years: the most far-fetched claim one can attribute to this band. At this point, having gotten that off my chest, it's better to proceed with the analysis of the album, or rather the albums because, as said earlier, this is a double album based on the epic of Gilgamesh, an epic cycle set in the Sumerian times, inscribed in cuneiform characters on clay tablets, and also one of the oldest poems of human civilization. Briefly explaining the concept, Gilgamesh is the cruel ruler of Uruk, who must face Enkidu, a warrior created by the gods whose task is to defeat the Sumerian king. The confrontation ends in a draw, and a beautiful friendship develops between them, which is abruptly cut short by Enkidu's death, defeated by a deadly illness. Affected by this tragic event, Gilgamesh embarks on an epic journey in search of immortality.
The advice is to read the full summary of the poem (available on Wikipedia) to understand (or better experience) the concept proposed by this magnum opus with greater clarity and depth.
The Blessed Curse
The first disc of this release contains the album proper. The climate is powerful, parched, oriental and desert-like, effectively reflecting the emotions of the Gilgamesh epic, becoming an impeccable transposition of the immortal poem. The lyrics once again exude philosophy and wisdom, blending in a marked poetic component, not heard since the times of The Deluge. If the title track impeccably sets itself as a manifesto for the entire album, Truth in the Ash revisits the band's more heroic and muscular character, while Tomes of Clay and Falling will leave you breathless for the oriental and evocative vein with which they have been structured: two unparalleled electroacoustic hits with a psychedelic flavor; among them stands out a powerful and dark The Dead Still Speak. At this point, about 20 minutes of pure metallic adrenaline begin, divided between the gallop Kings of Invention and the massive and explosive Reign of Dreams, before Luxifera's Light and Sword of Hate lend the piece a more cadenced and solemn moment. The album closes with The Mused Kiss, another semi-acoustic ballad of visionary beauty, a pure evocation of the otherworldly, adorned with refined nods to seventies prog.
The first disc flows smoothly with the usual efficiency and ease, without presenting any particular surprises in terms of songwriting. A good three-quarters of an hour that serves as a worthy continuation of the best work done with the previous Mysterium, with a rhythm section in excellent form and a stellar Shelton in the solo phase, reaffirming the precious power of the guitar work, always an indestructible trademark of the band. The vocal parts are also good, although they no longer manage to give the songs the same evocative power as before.
After the Muse
When the title track starts playing in the player, you'll certainly ask yourself: "What is After the Muse?" Is it a bonus disc containing throwaways and fillers? Is it the lyrical continuation of The Blessed Curse? Or is it even a second album, entirely autonomous and experimental, packed within the same package? Well; After the Muse is predominantly a monumental unplugged suspended between folk and psychedelia, an almost entirely acoustic work that nevertheless manages to offer a dignified continuation of what was heard on the previous album. First off, it's important to note that the sound has changed, but not the style: After the Muse manages to be 100% Manilla Road while presenting itself with an alternative and daring stylistic choice. Yes, because when a metal band launches into an experiment of this type, involving without boring remains the most important goal to achieve.
At first glance, After the Muse might present itself as a product difficult to digest, but once assimilated, it will prove to be even more interesting than the other disc! It matters little if some scribblers dared to suggest that this album is a semi-propagandist effort to promote Mark Shelton's solo work, that Obsidian Dreams which so closely resembles the sound of this album. What malice! A release also justified by Shelton's own words: "Why a double album? Simply because I couldn't say everything in just one disc." This time the heat and desolation pleasantly penetrate our souls, while Gilgamesh continues his solitary journey, leaving behind a landscape of trodden dunes, occasionally resting in splendid and refreshing oases forgotten by man. Life Goes On and Reach perfectly describe all this, but there's also a folkloric title track and a delicate In Search of the Lost Chord, the intimate evocation of a solitary bard. All pieces prove to be born from sweat and a certain compositional lucidity, certainly not as a publicity stunt, also because if I were a musician intending to promote my alternative project, at most I would create a three or four-minute song echoing the tones of my solo album, not compose half an hour of new material!
Do you want to know what the real flaw of this album is (which then falls as the only major flaw of the entire release)? The presence of two different versions of All Hallows Eve, a suite never before published, born in 1981 during a jam session in the studio by the old line-up. It was recorded live but with makeshift means, and this problem creates a significant and annoying audio fluctuation, completely out of place compared to the refined and sober magic that permeates the rest of the album. The piece, however, was completed in 2014 with four new minutes that add to the eleven of the original: this latest version concludes this grand musical saga worthily. Yes, because the piece itself isn't bad: an acoustic opening, long and pleasantly monotonous, full of ancient calm, unfolds for almost seven minutes until an electric riff, impetuous and sudden, opens a hard'n'heavy ride that echoes the splendors of the grand Crystal Logic, that is, raw sounds, but decidedly more contained and soft, especially in the drumming, with a clear "seventies space rock" influence. If we finally add a Shelton that expertly returns to offering his nasal and resounding tone, the result becomes undoubtedly excellent. The piece thus concludes the disc by proposing a more metal character, aimed at creating a musical affinity with the other album that starts mainly electric, only to become more sober and acoustic in the second disc; a peace, however, broken in the final minutes of the last suite with the decisive, relentless ride.
So what should have been done to solve the problem of the double suite? Simple: remove the bad apple, that is, the original version, but specify in the booklet that the final suite derives precisely from the historic jam session of '81, which could have been spared for this work and inserted later as a bonus track of a future album.
Conclusions
There isn't much else to say, apart from the fact that this album remains among the top positions of 2015 for metal releases. A double album that, for the first time, could also engage lovers of seventies folk-rock, thanks to a series of songs that identify the inexhaustible experimental vein of this legendary band. Who knows what they'll come up with next time...
Federico "Dragonstar" Passarella
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