Another Plan B discovery, this one.
Circa 2005/6, I was reading the album reviews in an issue of said magazine and came across this. The review described this as an instrumental album that fused metal with chamber music, folk and flamenco, which, on paper sounds like a disaster. A pompous, overblown and unbearably theatrical disaster. Nevertheless, I just had to hear what this would sound like. What compelled me even more was the fact that Sierra Cassidy from CocoRosie featured on a track and that it was recorded outdoors (the latter appealing to the music production geek in me).
After placing the order through Amazon, the album arrived a week later. The first thing that struck me was the awful cover art, but I wasn't going to let that put me off. I reasoned this album was either going to be really good or really, really shit. Fortunately it was the former.
Thankfully, the metal aspects of the record, rather than being crassly overpowering, are considerately intertwined with the rest of the music. And yes, the album is as theatrical as you might expect, but far from being archly pretentious, it's somehow endearing; more experimental than self indulgent. Rockier moments boil and swell, giving way to more languid, measured intervals, and back again. Nothing feels forced, nothing feels out of place. The unlikely blend of styles all flow together beautifully, making the album feel like one single, extended piece, and during its quieter moments, you can actually hear bird tweets and insect thrums; the sounds of nature providing an organic backdrop that adds to the overall charm of the record.
Above all, one of the reasons I like this album so much is that I really don't have anything else like it in my collection. Yes, I have metal albums, I have instrumental albums and I have folk-inspired albums, but nothing blended quite as uniquely as this. What's more, you can't help but admire the sheer gall that must have birthed such a goofily obtuse concept in the first place.
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