2024-04-22 06:00:17
SiX By SiX – Beyond Shadowland
Origin: USA / Canada / UK
Release: 26.04.2024
Label: InsideOut Music
Duration: 54:57
Genre: Progressive Rock
The transcontinental supergroup’s first self-titled album SiX By SiX made waves. On the one hand, because there are of course top-class musicians at work and also because Ian Crichton is leaving following the end of Saga was once once more able to contribute to a project in such a pleasing way.
Of course, this applies even more to the second work that is now being released Beyond Shadowlandwhich will make friends of progressive rock musicians click their tongues with a good dash of AOR.
Once once more, pretty much everything is pleasant here. The varied and playful rhythm section and the intelligent guitar lines are perfectly interwoven by the players’ melodic flair. No wonder the former and current main bands stand out Crichton, Glockler and Berry also characterized by a high level of melodic bliss.
This can be verified on practically every song, here is an example Arms of a Wordthe HERE can be seen with a video in which the guitars have a wonderful playfulness and still crash like hell. As on the first album, the three musicians harmonize perfectly with each other, even though some of them come from different corners of the rock genre.
Retroprog with AOR influence
The rock sound of the 1980s is of course omnipresent, but the power trio is still experimental and combines familiar harmonies with all sorts of original guitar and percussion sounds, as in Can’t Live Like This. There will of course be different physical versions of the album, especially on the vinyl version some pieces of the album are present as orchestral interpretations and two pieces of the album are available as alternative instrumental versions.
There is something to criticize Beyond Shadowland not much. The acoustic ballad Only You Can Decide may not ignite for everyone. Some songs like for example Obiliex are close to Saga. The quality of the album in no way suffers from such details. The musicians are in top form and the chemistry between them seems to be right, especially from a musical point of view.
Conclusion
Friends of retroprog sounds will join SiX By SiX feel good anyway. Beyond Shadowland Compared to its predecessor, it goes a step further in terms of variety and hardness. 9 / 10
Line Up
Robert Berry – Gesang, Bass, Keyboards
Ian Crichton – Gitarren
Nigel Glockler – drums, percussion
Tracklist
01. Wren
02. Arms of a Word
03. Can’t Live Like This
04. Obiliex
05. Only You Can Decide
06. Titans
07. Outside Looking In
08. Spectre
09. Sympathise
10. One Step
11. The Mission
Links
Website SiX By SiX
Also on Soundmagnet.eu
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Editor’s recommendation – Esthesis – Progressive Art Rock from France
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