Dark Matter

Even IQ's most dedicated fans don't expect the group to top its third-period crowning achievement, Subterranea, but does Dark Matter ever get close! This album makes The Seventh House (IQ's previous album, released three years earlier) appear very, very average. The melodies are catchier and more moving, the writing stronger, the arrangements more varied. The album's strength mostly resides in the 24-minute closing epic, "Harvest of Souls," surely IQ's best epic song, arguably their best song, period. After the oblique meanders of the cluttered "The Narrow Margin" (from Subterranea, that album's weaker point), "Harvest of Souls" offers a much clearer structure, a generous number of memorable themes, and a dark political subtext referring to American politics post-9/11.

Blues-Rock veterans, the Stoney Curtis Band, returned to the studio in Las Vegas this summer in follow-up to their 2012 double-live release. The resulting CD, Halo Of Dark Matter, is a high-energy collection of guitar-oriented jams, that recalls the stadium guitar heroes of the 70's. This fifth record in Stoney's discography takes things up a couple of notches as his songwriting and soloing skills ascend to yet a higher plateau. The Stoney Curtis Band has been working the clubs between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, for over 10 years, honing their own brand of psychedelic Blues-Rock, readying their show for the road ahead. Over the past few years the band has done a number of USA tours and six European tours as well. Heavily steeped in 60's/70's Psychedelia, the Stoney Curtis Band has translated the energy of their phenomenal live show into an incredible new studio disc containing over 70 minutes of full tilt Blues-Rock.

Originally released in Japan as Wide Awake. This version has an alternate tracklisting including 3 additional tracks and re-recorded Drums and Bass Guitar. Alan CASE, born Ernst van der Kerkhof, is a multi-instrumentalist who's been making music since 1989. His material, similar to KAYAK and The ALAN PARSONS PROJECT, is basically good symphonic pop: a mixture of straightforward rock songs, dreamy ballads and lots of melodious, catchy tunes - some of them with a decidedly proggy flavour. Sadly, his solo work was completely ignored by the music industry in his native Holland and he ended up with a Japanese label who released several of his songs on compilation albums. The two albums credited to his name ("Wide Awake" and "Dark Matter") are actually one and the same, only the second contains three extra tracks.

Scar Symmetry has blown me away yet again, Dark Matter Dimensions is quite simply a superb metal album, and could easily end up being my choice for album of the year.