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Ark - Burn The Sun

Artist:	Ark
Title:	Burn The Sun
Label:	InsideOutMusic IOMCD 075
Length(s):	57 minutes
Year(s) of release:	2001
Month of review:	{04/2001]

Line up

Tore Østby - guitar
John Macaluso - drums
Jorn Lande - vocals
Randy Coven - bass
Mats Olausson - keyboards

Tracks

2)	Torn	3.51
3)	Burn The Sun	4.34
4)	Resurrection	5.31
6)	Just A Little	4.36
7)	Waking Hour	4.15
9)	Feed The Fire	3.56
10)	I Bleed	4.03
11)	Missing You	9.04

Summary

All the above members have played with well-known bands and solo artists such as TNT, Riot, Uli Jon Roth, DC Cooper, Vai and Malmsteen and now they banded together to fill up an album of their own.

The music

Heal The Waters opens this progmetal album. The soulful voice of Jorn Lande dominate this track. He has one of those typical gravelly hardrock vocals, but the soul is there as well. In addition the song rocks hard with its staccato rhythms, but also has a nice piano interlude. The keyboard solo is a bit in the style of Threshold, with slight Arabic influences in the melody. In fact, the keyboardist is freaking out here, but the totality of it has a good drive and the drummer keeps himself really busy. A good introduction to the album. Then the coin drops...and the chorus returns.

Torn is the next one up. This song opens very percussively and has a rather spooky ring to it. Mysterious piano sounds and a Levin-like zooming bass and again a strong performance by singer Lande make this an excellent track and something new as well. The articulation of Lande has something of Björk in it (but, do not be afraid, nothing childish).

Burn The Sun again brings us a good composition, but it does have little specifics to it that I can remark about. Resurrection opens as a ballad with the zooming bass of Coven and acoustic guitar. The vocal melody is again very good. The song turns to rock later on.

Absolute Zero opens with weird vocalizations; again I hear echoes of Björk here. The chorus is again in perfect order: powerful, melodic, sweeping. Time for something softer and sweeter. Fast acoustic Spanish guitar dominates this track. The chorus is rather poppy and in parts I am reminded of Queen's Innuendo.

The next track Waking Hour has some influences of Peter Gabriel in the vocal melody. After a rather relaxed beginning, the rhythm guitars set in. Again a great vocal melody and an emotional performance. Probably the best track so far. Quickly we move into the drawling Noose. Fastpaced and hectic, this is more of a metal track. I also hear some Indian influences in the melody lines here.

Feed The Fire has vocal influences from early Sting (his time in the Police). After I Bleed we come to longest track of the album Missing You. This is not a cover of John Waite, but a great desperate track with lots of string like synths. Strangely enough some Invisible Touch era percussion and synths, but also a very Freddy Mercury (There's No Reason For Living...) like climax to the vocals. Maybe he is the person who is missed, although the song also implies a love that went wrong, but some of the lines can be read in two ways: for instance "the man you never knew". A worthy conclusion to a great album.

Conclusion

Like the label says: for people looking for something new in progmetal, this should be a band to check out. I concur absolutely (for once), because this IS progmetal, but at a level of composition which should make it interesting for all progmetal and even metal lovers. The music is also interesting for proggers, because notwithstanding the catchiness of some of the vocal lines, the band packs enough variation and subtlety to capture at least part of this audience. The band tries to steer away from mandatory scale running and like Threshold focuses on composition, melody and a taste for the untried. That they also succeed in this make this album come highly recommended.