Spiral Architect is an extremely technical and progressive metal band. It is also one of those “super groups” in the metal world. Just look at the line up and the members past and present bands:
Øyvind Hægeland - Vocals, Keyboards (Arcturus (Nor), Scariot, Manitou (Nor), Lunaris)
Steinar Gundersen - Lead Guitar (Satyricon, Lunaris, King's Quest)
Andreas Jonsson - Guitar (Lunaris)
Lars Koppang Norberg - Bass, Programming (Anesthesia (Nor), Ihsahn)
Asgeir Mickelson - Drums (Borknagar, Enslavement of Beauty, Ihsahn, Lunaris, Scariot, Thornbound, Vintersorg)
A Sceptic's Universe is the only studio release by Spiral Architect, which isn’t too surprising since this is mainly a side project and the band members all have their other bands to focus on.
The album is full of constant changing time signatures alone are enough to boggle some. The technicality of the playing is amazing, and it doesn’t feel soulless. The music is top notch and some of the more interesting technical stuff I’ve heard in the past. Singer Øyvind Hægeland has an amazing ranger and the vocals are actually done clean, no cookie monsters on this album.
So a few metal heads that I have suggested this album to in the past to a few enjoy the music but can’t seem to get over the vocals. The songs are each a wonderful master piece with amazing technical prowess shown by all the members of the band. The lyrics are also a thing of odd beauty, poetic even on their own. The lyrics tend to be philosophical in nature, a mixture of metaphors and fragments of ideas. An example would be the lyrics for the song “Cloud Constructor”:
Life as it seemed to the circling man
As he gazed into discarded land
Was a ride on a carousel of faith
Then he flew away
He traveled far through his worn out mind
Through sorrow and pain, what had he gained?
Still his dreams they could never take away
So he flew into the sun again
Emptiness struck as he realized
There's no answer to "who am I? what am I?"
He then saw why men must construct for themselves
A cloud of Unknowing
Do yourself a favor and check out this album, listen to the whole thing in one sitting. If after that you don’t like it, delete it. If you do find yourself liking the album, purchase it.
-Christian
DL: http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?hibmm11nidn
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