Professor Black aka Chris Black of High Spirits and Dawnbringer fame is becoming something of a musical project whore just like a certain Swedish gent we know and love, which is great by the way. With each endeavour, there is a different flavour to his musical mind and with each batch of musicians encountered, more musical journeys are produced with varied influences.
Aktor is a project that features Finnish writers Jussi Lehtisalo (drums) and Tommi Leppänen (guitars and also in Circle and Falcon), “Professor Black’s” role was more the vocal melodies and bass parts. The music style is very different to the music usually associated with Black. There is more in line with High Spirits, but this is a more hard rock infused psychedelic trip through old fuzzy sci-fi movie soundtracks of the 70’s, with a touch of madness akin to albums like Kiss’ “The Oath” that caused a stir at the time too.
This musical rollercoaster is highlighted with tracks like ‘I Was the Son of God’ leading a 70’s rock charge and Hammond organ styled mysticism showing a different texture to these musicians musical influence. In some quarters I hear early Aerosmith, others Hawkwind, others the MC5 and Motorhead, its way out there as the whether it’s any good I am still not convinced, it’s certainly going to be popular with the “crowd”, it’s not a pure metal release and as Black has said its probably music that begins the first levels of madness, the start of a cult thing maybe?
A few time changes keep some tracks wanting a good respite from the uneven keel the track has taken on its journey (it goes a little mad and off kilter in places), but there’s something clever and infectious about that. ‘Something Nasty’ has a touch more bite as does the closer ‘The Mover’ (don’t fall asleep folks!).
It’s a different album, there is a sense of refreshment that this is different to other material I normally speak of, however I am not totally convinced this is as clever as it is made out to be Granted, it’s a different kind of retro than the doom rock stuff that’s floated around of recent times. But for me I would certainly like to hear more emphasis or more overdriven guitar sounds with the music, but it does work for what this album is. Trip out and enjoy this flavoured musical experiment!
(7.5/10 Paul Maddison)
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