Author: Peter Podbrežnik
Artist: Karmakanic
Label: Inside Out Records
Release: 2016
Runtime: 50:16
Rating: 3.5/5
»DOT« is the fifth studio album from Swedish progressive rock revivalists Karmakanic, founded in 2002 by The Flower Kings’ workaholic bassist Jonas Reingold. He usually fires up Karmakanic whenever The Flower Kings are ‘resting,’ and that’s when he records a new album with his fellow Karmakanic ‘sufferers,’ the standouts among them being seasoned vocalist Göran Edman (ex-John Norum, Yngwie Malmsteen, Brazen Abbot) and drumming grandmaster Morgan Ågren. This time around it’s the minimalistically titled and colored »DOT«, which doesn’t bring any huge sonic surprises, but will still please most longtime fans, since it has all the qualities that make some people rate Karmakanic almost as highly as the better-known The Flower Kings.
The album opens with serious ambition, a nearly twenty-five-minute epic suite, »DOT_God The Universe And Everything Else No One Really Cares About«, which is actually just the first half of an epic whole, since its closing part sits at the end of the album, instantly recalling the pioneering practice from Pink Floyd’s masterpiece »Wish You Were Here« (1975). Into this epic odyssey Karmakanic ‘pack’ all of their enviable instrumental skills, which they use to great effect to build their take on symphonic progressive rock, marked by both old-school (Genesis, Yes, ELP, Pink Floyd) and modernist (Ayreon, Symphony X, Dream Theater) influences.
The super-complex epic, which opens as a fairly innocent ballad, turns into a symphonic prog odyssey in the truest sense of the word, with plenty of intricate instrumental sections, rich symphonic arrangements, admirable transitions and interludes of female backing vocal harmonies. There are also quite a few stylistic metamorphoses across these twenty-five minutes, as funk, jazz and even hard rock elements start trading places in certain sections, which means it’s never boring. The finale doesn’t skimp on an epic guitar solo from the virtuoso Krister Jonsson. Ågren, one of the few musicians who has shared a stage with both Frank Zappa and Devin Townsend, has been one of the most respected rock drummers since his youth, and Karmakanic once again manage to make the most of his exceptional talent. Edman is one of those singers who feels at home in all kinds of musical genres, so his vocals inside Karmakanic’s traditionally intricate sonic schemes, with their many sudden time changes and tempo swerves, come off no less convincing than when he sings in various hard rock projects.
A positive atmosphere mostly reigns on »DOT«, while Reingold keeps swearing by abstract lyrics, which means Karmakanic still have plenty in common with Reingold’s ‘mother ship’ The Flower Kings. The one major problem with this album is that the opening epic is so good that the remaining pieces somehow end up in its shadow, even though none of them is bad. After that, apart from the ten-minute cheerful carousel »Higher Ground«, which with its ‘blooming’ atmosphere, melodic nature and ‘heavenly’ backing vocal harmonies recalls both Yes and The Flower Kings, there are just three shorter pieces, which makes »DOT« just about the right length. Like The Flower Kings, Karmakanic have clearly realized over the years that even the biggest devotees have started to tire of pompous, super-long albums with more than two hundred minutes… sorry, more than a hundred and twenty minutes of music, especially when they’re stuffed with a pile of shorter ‘fillers’ to pad things out, so they opted for moderation instead.
As mentioned, the shorter pieces stay in the shadow of the opening super-epic, but they’re still worth a listen. »Steer By Stars« is an ultra-melodic symphonic rocker with some ‘shy’ hard rock touches, while the ‘lush’ vocal harmonies are built on a pure Yes ‘recipe.’ »Traveling Minds« has likable opening bass improvisations in the domain of chieftain Reingold, while choral vocal harmonies once again take over amid dense symphonic arrangements. The closing part of the super-epic »God The Universe…« is a ceremonial power ballad with an epic charge that ends the album on a predictably cheerful note.
With »DOT«, Karmakanic have made an utterly likable record that will, as expected, appeal most to fans of The Flower Kings and the modern prog-rock revival, where the usual Scandinavian gloom is a rare sight and an at-times almost over-the-top ambient idealism rules. Apart from the fact that they poured most of their energy into the opening super-epic, while the rest of »DOT« is more than solid but not overly thrilling, there’s not much to fault on the album. »DOT« is, as usual with Karmakanic, a record that will mainly catch the interest of devotees of modern prog revivalism, since it brings nothing innovative that wasn’t already ‘said’ in the seventies and eighties. Reingold’s merry band simply made good use of the fact that Jonas’s boss Roine Stolt didn’t reactivate The Flower Kings this year, filling the missing ‘gap’ for every fan of a modern take on symphonic prog rock.
Lineup
Jonas Reingold – bass guitar
Morgan Ågren – drums and percussion
Lalle Larsson – keyboards
Krister Jonsson – guitar
Göran Edman – vocals
Nils Erikson – keyboards and backing vocals
Production
Jonas Reingold
Track list
1. DOT_God the Universe and Everything Else No One Really Cares About, Pt. I (24:40)
2. Higher Ground (10:12)
3. Steer By Stars (4:22)
4. Traveling Minds (5:03)
5. God The Universe and Everything Else No One Really Cares About, Pt. II (5:59)
