This is album number three for Arch Echo and it sees them continuing to expand their grooves and sound down the ever expanding progressive/metal/fusion path. I think I’m right here by saying that they met at Berkeley College, as did a certain other band nearly forty years earlier. (Not that they sound like DT at all, even though Jordan Rudess does appear on a track, they operate in different spheres of the same universe.)
Arch Echo are all instrumental and incorporate varying styles, sometimes all in one tune. Angry Sprinkles opens up the album and blows my mind immediately. Killer grooves with some low end grunt, delicate textures, and superb melodies all wrapt in one juicy parcel. Aluminosity is the track Rudess plays on and again, jaw hits floor time at the complexity and beauty of the piece. If this had arrived in time for 2023 it would have been my album of the year.
Red Letter starts with a very positive and uplifting vibe as well as a very deep under groove that changes to some smooth fusion before those deep bowel moving riffs attack you. Superb! To contradict myself, the next tune Final Pitch does have vocals, albeit heavily doctored and pitch tuned that sounds weird but ultimately fits the track.
Did anyone mention heavy jazz? I love the delicate beginnings to Cloudsplitter before the intricacies take over, and that low end rumble gets me every time. Battlestar Nostalgica is seemingly quite a laid back piece but if you listen closely the time signatures and keyboard patterns are killer, then the boom takes over. Bet Your Life is way cool with its heavy fusion vibe, and the groove is just awesome. Gold Dust sort of carries on that feel with added low end and some epic guitar. The last track and my favourite is Super Sudden Death. Try counting time to this one.
A friend of mine says Arch Echo remind them of Snarky Puppy, but I find that’s just in very small moments as they are way heavier than The Puppy. I love this band and I must see them at the first chance I get.
10/10 from The Grooveman.
