Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
In a land where myths and tales of old meets the 21st Century gothic land of modern Noir, it really falls to the Progressive to make the two ends combine and function in a way that allows the light to shine through the darkness and the one eyed threatening mysterious to swallow the embittered weighty illumination on offer; in some kind of cosmic dance, the light and the shade are balanced in an effective Voice of Reason.
It is the voice that haunts through the Swedish Progressive Metal band with assurance, with tangible authority, that marks out it as one of the best yet from Cloudscape and into that darkness that Håkan Nyander, Fredrik Joakimsson, Patrik Svärd, Mike Andersson and Stefan Rosqvist provide, who usher into view with the sense of a global growl the beyond that must be entered without fear if the world is to be seen as less daunting, less bleak. It is a welcome that Cloudscape offer with great depth in each track.
The voice of reason is not always the voice of sanity but there is so much going on within the wall to wall sound that sanity is over-rated, it would only interfere with attempting to understand what fascinating thoughts come across in songs such as Futuristic Psycho, All For Metal, the excellent Needle In The Eye and the killer finale In Silence We Scream; for in those thoughts dwells a naked truth of the Progressive, that it must be seen to be able to tell a story, to weave a narrative of intricate design, one that a spider caught in a breeze would welcome the chance to find a new way of spinning a familiar pattern.
It is though in the album’s title track that the strength of force comes together and the Voice of Reason is to be heard, is to be framed as a song of great demand, of stature and in it the immensity of the project shines through. The beast that lives in the dark is more approachable than you think.
An album of intriguing wonder, the art of Progressive Metal is not lost in the land of myths and legends.
Ian D. Hall