From the admirable ViciSolum label comes Ring of Gyges with this album. I hadn’t heard of this band previously, but on the face of it they’re right up my street. Peddling progressive metal with intriguing “odd rhythmic patterns”, the stated influences are bands like Leprous and Haken with a nod to 70s prog rock. “Metamorphosis” is actually their second album following the release of “Beyond the Night Sky” in 2017.
Away we go into the skies. Well that’s clearly where “Dragonflies” was taking us after a proggy start. At first I found the vocals a bit whiny but they kick into gear. Meanwhile the music is dynamic and sophisticated. Clearly Ring of Gyges were looking to take us to higher places – just like Haken. The question now was which mountain were we going to climb next? Twisty technical metal and a bit of djent provided the calming background to the angst-driven lyrics of “Cabin Fever”. Again we found ourselves dreaming and flying. A djenty rhythm mixed with harmonies. Whoosh … we are brought back down to earth with the harder-edged, but no less technically adept “Nautilus”. It’s a good piece but once you’re on the peak, it takes skill to transfer back below and achieve the same buzz and vibe. I’m not sure that happened. “Go” has the airy feel of Canvas Solaris to begin, before suddenly changing and embarking on a strange Lennonesque retro vocal. This song must be the epicentre of the “odd rhythmic patterns” because the song goes through various phases, not all of them obviously connected. There’s a jazzy passage, before we go back to a soaring vocal and the feel-good technical guitar work that we began with. Interesting but mystifying. Now after that I didn’t know what to expect.
What came was a beautiful acoustic song. “The Choice” starts dreamily before heightening the intensity and emotion. The vocalist’s expressiveness accentuates the song and the lyrics, which are out of the prog text book and nicely delivered. Smoothly it takes us into the hypnotic rhythm and harmonisation of “Holy Water”. For me this song fell somewhere between Vola’s “Alien Shivers” and Foreigner’s “Waiting for a Girl Like You”. It was all remorselessly going down the road of silky smoothness, so the Leprous-like drama that formed the rhythm “Parasite” injected a new ambience. We’re now in dark and menacing territory as the drama builds up nicely. The ringing of a carousel in a toy shop breaks off, but the hypnotic and dreamy rhythm that accompanies it continues and remains in our head on the melancholic “Fading”. “It’s blowing through on a windless night … it’s so quiet here” – the vocalist guides us through a vivid and evocative scene. “Fading” has a similar quality to “Holy Water” in its swaying emotive tranquillity. It’s a prog album so a thirteen-minute track is of necessity. It comes in the form of “The Face of God”. This allows for an electronic build-up. What follows is a Hakenesque mix of dreamy prog, djenty darkness and cosmic waves before a piano-guided Ross Jennings style vocal section. An electronic passage signals the restart after a break. The vocalist harmonises, the guitar work is dark, the sky and the mood blackens. Technical guitar work takes us forward. The technical musical output fuses with more djent, and it ends on a climactic note. This is so Haken-like that it could be Haken themselves. “Sea Legs” is more moody with a 70s vibe behind it and more Jennings-style vocals. The soft, emotive vocals are interspersed with the technical prog guitar work which gives it a lift at the end. “Find Me Here” has the feel of a closing track, which it is. Strong on delicacy and emotion, it floats along unthreateningly, raising the bar with the chorus. Dreamily it takes us away before fading out.
I found this was a pleasant and interesting album. I also found it slightly frustrating. The first song is dynamic, then after hitting the heights it meanders through metaphorical valleys and fields and past rivers amid melancholic, delicate, lofty and dark atmospheres, promising much and both surprising and delighting me on occasions but never overwhelming me in a consistent way or even at all. Each piece stands on its own, which is fine, but I prefer to feel the fluidity of the whole than indulge in individual songs. Even when it came to the grandstanding thirteen-minute prog song, it wasn’t epic to my ears. What’s interesting is that this isn’t a new band. This much is evident. To their credit, except perhaps in the case of the experimental “Go”, Ring of Gyges avoid the route that new bands can follow of “we have a load of ideas, let’s cram them all in at the expense of the listening experience”. The band take their time and allow us to imbibe the atmosphere of their songs. Yet the songs are a mixed bag stylistically, and taken as a whole for me “Metamorphosis” – a clue in the title, maybe? – lacked continuity. I’d be interested to see this band live, and even checked the line-up for this year’s ProgPower Europe, where I’m sure they would be greatly appreciated. They’re not down for that, but I wonder if I were to see them live I’d gain a greater appreciation of a clearly talented band who are capable of composing thoughtful prog songs.
(7.5/10 Andrew Doherty)
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