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Linear Sphere - Manvantara review



Reviewer:
N/A

4 users:
7.25
Band: Linear Sphere
Album: Manvantara
Release date: July 2012


01. Origin
02. Manvantara
03. Cycle Of Ages
04. Inner Flame
05. Reset Realign
06. The Dawning

Linear Sphere is a band of Brits who were all involved in music since an early age, and who have a passion for genre fusion and making their music as diverse and interesting as possible. You can guess what they've set out to play - elaborately technical, intricate progressive metal of the I-hope-that-guitar-was-eighteen-years-old-type and tracks averaging at around seven minutes. Yup, it's the "highbrow" music your punk rocker friends warned you about.

For their second album, they've opted to tell us the story of Man's spiritual evolution and take us on a dark journey through the ages. The man responsible for the esoteric lyrics and concepts is the same man who delivers them in the studio - the band's vocalist Jos. Just like Metal Storm's Undercraft, who reviewed their debut some seven years ago, I found it very hard to acclimate to his theatrical, supernatural villain/mad scientist approach to singing. On occasions when he employs his "natural" voice and when the vocals don't lay so heavily on top, my listening experience betters.

Musically, Manvantara is quite interesting, and in a similar vein to the Arch/Matheos effort of 2011 (to use a recent reference) - dark, modern, intense prog, mostly guitar-oriented, with the bass (occasionally a chapman stick!) and drums stealing the spotlight sometimes, and atmospheric keys brightening the tone in select moments. But just because it's interesting doesn't mean it's engaging by default. I've spun the album many times, since, in theory, it is something I should like, but I find it to be one of the albums that completely "deny" me as a listener. If a piece of music is supposed to take me on a journey, I'd like to be a part of the story, and not a passive recipient to whom the story will be told. Whenever I play it, I feel like I am going to the prom with a wonderful guy and then sitting in the corner under corny decorations and watching him have all the fun in the world. However, there might be other more appreciative girls in the crowd he's chatting up, so look the album up if you're interested, it might pay off for you.

Favorite track: "Inner Flame"





Written on 02.12.2012 by A part of the team since December 2011. 7.0 means the album is good.


Comments

Comments: 8   Visited by: 175 users
02.12.2012 - 13:00
tea[m]ster
Au Pays Natal
Nice read. I will check this out because, well, you know, I like prog metal!
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rekt
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02.12.2012 - 13:09
Milena
gloom cookie
Written by tea[m]ster on 02.12.2012 at 13:00

Nice read. I will check this out because, well, you know, I like prog metal!

Yeah, I know you do
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7.0 means the album is good
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02.12.2012 - 14:03
qlacs
"The Quaker"
Back in the day I've heard their debut couple of times, was not so memorable for me. Like a month ago I've spotted an article somewhere about this and I got interesting in checking it out, damn it's been 7 years since their first. Thanks for the review Milena!
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02.12.2012 - 22:12
Slyfang

The band name, the album title, the song titles and the cover art.. all of them scream psytrance
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03.12.2012 - 11:04
Milena
gloom cookie
Written by Slyfang on 02.12.2012 at 22:12

The band name, the album title, the song titles and the cover art.. all of them scream psytrance

That's an interesting viewpoint
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7.0 means the album is good
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05.12.2012 - 05:25
Stabby
Account deleted
Yeah, agood observation. Psytrance is like prog metal's techno counterpart.

I listened to the title song and Inner Flame. The intro to Manvantara before the vocals is indistinguishable from some psytrance intros too. The rest of the song was all right. It doesn't scream "amazing", but it's interesting. I think I have to be in a proggier mood to dig this, they're doing a lot of unorthodox things and they're certainly not handing all of the virtues of the songs to us on a silver platter like "heeey this is what's great about this song, eat it up!"
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04.02.2013 - 19:35
Auntie Sahar
Drone Empress
The beginning of this review... Milena, I am going to love you forever
In all seriousness though, sounds like some pretty challenging, thought provoking music... in other words, right up my alley
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I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. “Come unto me” is a foolish word: for it is I that go.

~ II. VII
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08.02.2013 - 11:45
Milena
gloom cookie
Written by Auntie Sahar on 04.02.2013 at 19:35

The beginning of this review... Milena, I am going to love you forever
In all seriousness though, sounds like some pretty challenging, thought provoking music... in other words, right up my alley

I am going to love you forever now
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7.0 means the album is good
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