Comets Fire

Toronto's Quest For Fire conjure up the original root of psychedelia with the raunch, muscle, and oscillations of Hawkwind and Comets On Fire, and Pink Floyd's sensory panorama, all resting on a simplistic, plodding Spacemen 3 thump. The band's sound comes across fully realized, they possess a signature sound, something a band usually gets to once they're already a couple of records deep.

After 2004’s critically acclaimed Blue Cathedral, one might have expected Comets on Fire to blast off into the cosmos in an infinite flurry of lysergic spasmodicism. Surprising, then, that they should turn in an earthy, more accessible and downright beautiful album as their follow-up. Then again, it is a completely logical progression, but in reverse, sort of. On Avatar their astonishing new album, Comets display development in every direction: as musicians, as songwriters, as arrangers and as singers (?!), without sacrificing one ounce of the intensity that is expected from our heroes. As on Blue Cathedral, the diversity of the material is staggering. Avatar veers from swinging, bluesy explorations to piano-laced, progressive power balladry, to pure tribalism, evoking everyone from the Allmans, to Quicksilver, to Procol Harum, to some insane Fela/Sun Ra/Crazy Horse hybrid, yet remains wholly Comets on Fire…

Software formed in 1983 by German duo Peter Mergener and Michael Weisser, Software owes much to electronic pioneer Klaus Schulze. Software's music usually builds on sequencer patterns and simple melodies, creating a lighter version of the Schulze style.

The core of Comets on Fire are all present on Ascent, and together they help old bandmate Ben Chasny pummel some new tracks and reconfigure several from his vast back catalog.