|
The
general consensus is going to be that Invasion is a band
of hipsters worthy of all our insults. Now, true, they
may fit the bill a little bit too perfectly. Their
bass-less sound could insert itself perfectly into the
non metal pages of all the too hip publications, but
truth be told their music is hard hitting enough. Plus,
their logo rocks. Yeah, that’s silly. Styles aren’t
defined by logos, but they help, don’t they? Invasion
are aware of these dangers, after all metal is a genre of
much scrutiny, so they call their music ‘drunken wizard
metal’ and in their MySpace, as a way to qualify,
include every other metal band guitarist Marek has been
a part of. These include Droid, Skullcrusher, Red
Planet, Girls On Fire and others. True, the dude can rip
that indie rock looking guitar, but he avoids solos of
all kinds. And solos are fucking metal god damn it!
Plus,
he plays with a three string guitar so all we get is a
limited range of sound.
I don’t know
what people mean when they say certain albums and bands sound
like hipster metal and all the definitions concerning these may
be too broad, vague or stupid. But as I listen to The Master
Alchemist I think this may be what they are referring to. At
the same time, I don’t care. Music is music. And most of this
debut is a fine slice of pseudo psychedelic metal rock. Invasion
is being hyped as psych metal. And there is a psychedelic vibe
generally coming from the fuzz heavy guitars. For the most part
though, this sub genre is only addressed in the instrumental
closer “Chaos & The Ancient Night” while the rest of the twelve
tracks show timid flares of effects, none too present to
consider Invasion a psychedelic metal band. That doesn’t
matter though. It’s just nit picking.
That said, the most
distinctive factor of Invasion is not the music, but the vocals of Chan. To those in this side of
the pond who in the mid 90’s paid attention to Skunk Anansie,
well, Chan basically sounds like vocalist Skin. Yeah, she has
potent soulful pipes. There is a lot of reference to the Motown
sound, though I don’t hear it, Chan delivers a spirited
performance, in parts adding to the uniqueness of the Invasion
sound and in others adding to the odd factor of it. When the
album starts with “Conjure War” her voice strikes, the music is
thick, rocking, with a stoney-vibe and her voice is almost the
opposite. The effect works at times and at others comes as
awkward. Once The Master Alchemist is done though, the
only clear thing is the realization that one just witnessed a
pretty unique proposition and that's never a bad thing.
MySpace
|
|
