Label: Evil Ink Records
Release date: July 29, 2016
Production: Tom Monda
Album length: 67.53 min
Genre: Progressive Rock/Progressive Metal/Jazz Fusion
Rating: 9.5/10
American eclectic proggers Thank You Scientist wowed everyone with their innovative and refreshingly fresh-sounding debut “Maps of Non-Existent Places” (2014), and in 2016 they came back with their second album, “Stranger Heads Prevail”. That debut impressed Claudio Sanchez, the frontman of Coheed and Cambria, so much that he invited Thank You Scientist to sign with his label, Evil Ink Records. The label reissued that debut and then put out “Stranger Heads Prevail”, their first album with bassist Cody McCorry (Karmic Juggernaut). Fans of bands like The Mars Volta and the aforementioned Coheed and Cambria who also appreciate the jazz rock fusion scene of the last century will find a wealth of fascinating moments in Thank You Scientist’s music.
“Stranger Heads Prevail” was a not-so-surprising step up from the band’s superb debut, and they’ve never hidden their musical influences, such as Frank Zappa, Mahavishnu Orchestra, The Beatles and Harry Nilson. Their eclectic blend of progressive rock, progressive metal and jazz fusion, often spiced up with fun horn arrangements and offbeat humor, bears plenty of fruit again in this second studio assault.
Despite its many “old-school” touches, which goes especially for the jazz fusion elements, “Stranger Heads Prevail” sounds thoroughly modern thanks to Tom Monda’s production, while singer Salvatore Marrano’s vocal approach would fit any alternative metal band. What makes Thank You Scientist’s music on this album so intriguing for prog rock fans from the former common state of the South Slavs and the wider Balkan peninsula is how completely out of character it is for an American outfit to mix prog rock, prog metal and jazz fusion with Balkan-sounding horn arrangements of the kind you’d sooner expect from the Serbian brass bands of Guča. Frank Zappa, by the way, already tried this kind of unusual mashup of progressive rock and Balkan folk brass on his classic jazz rock fusion album “Waka Jawaka” (1972), whose creator, as mentioned, had a major influence on Thank You Scientist’s musical style.
The wildly colorful stylistic stew called “The Sommabulist” is a fine example of this kind of highly witty blending of jazz fusion, alternative metal, hard rock and prog rock. “Caverns” has more prog metal and alt metal in it, but it’s just as enviable a stylistic mix that will delight every music gourmet. The opening section of “Mr. Invisible” is spiced up in an almost smooth-jazz way, with rhythms that harken back to the golden age of the disco era, which is quite a contrast to Salvatore Marrano’s alternative rock vocal approach. It then shifts into more funk-jazz waters with a mighty horn section, sounding like a close encounter between The Mars Volta (metal guitar passages), Herbie Hancock (keyboard arrangements), Earth, Wind & Fire (horn section) and Frank Zappa (horn section and goofy-sounding percussion).
The instrumental “Rube Goldberg Variations”, on which the band has a blast with the legacy of German organist and classical composer Johann Gottlieb Goldberg through witty variations, will thrill every longtime jazz fusion connoisseur. The rest of the album is packed with plenty more seriously fun moments, so it’s practically impossible to single out standout tracks, since every one of them is interesting and sits in a totally unique experimental category of its own.
“Stranger Heads Prevail” was in many ways an experimental step forward from the debut and cemented Thank You Scientist’s status as one of the most interesting and fast-rising, if not leading, bands in modern progressive rock. Thank You Scientist’s music will always delight all the “open” minds who are receptive to blending “old-school” and modern genre feats from the seventies and nineties within experimental rock, and who can appreciate a convincing union of seemingly incompatible musical ingredients.
Author: Peter “Dr. ProgRock” Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Prologue: A Faint Applause… (2:03)
2. The Somnambulist (5:33)
3. Caverns (7:06)
4. Mr. Invisible (7:36)
5. A Wolf in Cheap Clothing (6:43)
6. Blue Automatic (5:41)
7. Need More Input (7:47)
8. Rube Goldberg Variations (8:53)
9. Psychopomp (9:26)
10. The Amateur Arsonist’s Handbook (6:04)
11. Epilogue: …And the Clever Depart (1:07)
Lineup:
Salvatore Marrano – vocals
Tom Monda – guitar, fretless guitar, acoustic guitar, shamisen, sitar, backing vocals, string arrangements
Cody McCorry – bass guitar, theremin, foxtail
Ben Karas – violin, viola, five-string violin
Ellis Jasenovic – tenor saxophone
Andrew Digrius – trumpet, trombone
Odin Alvarez – drums
Guest musicians:
Mark Radice – vocals, piano, keyboards
AJ Merlino – percussion
Sean Redman – timpani
Gergly Kiss – cello
Tory Anne Daines – viola
Rebecca Harris – violin
Bumblefoot – vocals on Prologue: A Faint Applause and The Spectrum Vocal Ensemble – “crowd” vocals
