The band based out of Maryland, USA, Odins court, was founded by Matt Brookins. They have already self-financed two CDs and released a DVD, of which only the title of the 2003 album was specified, which reads Driven By Fate.
Deathanity, Odins Courts latest work, which is published by ProgRock Records, I now consider aberrant in the prog-metal corner simply for one fatal error: to be sure, prog-metal effectively resounds in the first moment out of the box, according to this judge, but other musical styles are also discernible, viz. progressive rock, AOR, and even classical.
Incidentally, by Deathanity it acts as a concept album, which anticipates the fatal effects of human acts on the earth. Appropriate to the theme, they have chosen a cover which appears very bleak and depicts a blazing tree, with birds flapping about. The cover of Odins Courts Myspace blog was designed by Jessica Noir of the Gothic Noir Dark Arts.
Now to the music: Matt Brookins has succeeded in serving a fantastic album to the inclined listener. From the first minute until the last there is insanely much to discover, and the protagonists are true masters of their instruments. There would be, for example, the striking dint of the percussion in Terracide. There are spoken words in nearly every song; sometimes a female voice, sometimes a male voice. When I found it objectionable, even in these times the phenomenon leads us through the albums theme. The vocal conglomerations are to be heard in, among other songs, Volatilestial, where even the bass appears with positive measure.
Matt Brookins proves his singing to be very versatile, when he changes without problems from soft to snotty (like in Manifest Destiny). There is terrific piano to be heard in Oceanica Toxica, which piece is built up in phases to total complexity.
Yikes! is that it? Mammonific indeed sounds hip after Evergrey. Of course this is the case, as it is here still Tom Englund as ?Gastshouter? on the mic.
And again and again fascinating guitar solos are even interspersed, as also in Animaulic. Except for some shredding, instrumentation is withheld in Esoterica, in which electric guitar and bass dominate.
Crownet comes with rich booming bass; here Tony Kakko of Sonata Artica has taken over the mic. One can perceive in Obesite warm ringing of the sax along with female background vocals. Here the band may be inspired by Pink Floyd. With Ludwig van Beethovens 9th Symphony in b-minor, also known as Ode To Joy, the young band demonstrates that with their instruments they can also be on the move classically.
Outside of the already mentioned sources of inspiration, on their MySpace site still a gazillion further bands are named, from which I here would like to list only a few, as it were: Devin Townsend, OSI, Queen, Rush, Metallica, Yes, Journey, Tool, Porcupine Tree, Dream Theater, ELP, and so on. This explains why Odins Courts sits musically among numerous styles. Nevertheless they have brilliantly created melodious and complex numbers, so as to amalgamate otherwise simple form into heavy-rocking songs.
Finally, still only the tip-top artwork remains for me to name, for this smashing achievement by Odins Court, which supplies us with Deathanity, should also, accordingly, be valued.
I was wondering who that was! Glad you liked it! It will be interesting to see how the CD further hits you as you continue to listen to it (hopefully).
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