Artist: Sieges Even
Label: Inside Out Records
Release: 2007
Germany’s Sieges Even are an intriguing presence on the prog rock horizon. Metal fans do everything they can to stick the “metal” genre tag on them, and what drives them to it, subconsciously, is the past and present reputation of the band’s members, more specifically the Holzwarth brothers, who, outside their Sieges Even work, are part of the crews of Rhapsody Of Fire (Alex on drums) and Blind Guardian (Oliver – studio and live session bassist).
With their return from the dead and the album before last, “The Art Of Navigating By The Stars” (2005), a record that, with its fresh style and sound and its overhaul of the band’s earlier musical language, delivered one of the top positive surprises of 2005 and quite literally knocked listeners off their feet with its artistic uniqueness, the phenomenon of Sieges Even’s increasingly sophisticated sound carries on with its successor “Paramount” (2007).
Arno Menses (vocals), who joined the band in 2004, is the one who tipped the scales and turned the Seiges Even story around in the very way they write songs: for this band, triumph is no longer about setting a record for notes played per second, but about creating impressive melodic motifs. Tidal and Eyes Wide Open are textbook examples on “Paramount” of flawlessly crafted chorus melodies, the kind that would honestly deserve to be released as a single and get heavy radio rotation. In both songs we run into a masterpiece of fluid blending, with intricately built pre-choruses flowing into maximally catchy melodic choruses, while we also get to admire the smooth, colorful shifting of moods within the captured, generally melancholic atmosphere. With “Paramount,” Sieges Even keep on successfully and skillfully softening their sound and boldly surrendering to the pursuit of perfect melodic combinations. The chemistry in the band is excellent, and the albums currently flying out of it, arriving right on cue at a moment of huge creative inspiration, justify the reputation of a top-quality lineup.
What makes the band special is the elegance with which they combine a sense of fragmentation, or motivic fragility, with immense listenability. That is the biggest draw of this album too, and it’s bound to pique the curiosity of even the most spoiled art/prog rock sweet tooth. The Holzwarth brothers bring to Sieges Even exactly what they’re not allowed to do in their day jobs in the heavy metal business. Alex busily pounds away at the fill toms and makes no secret of his jazz preferences in Sieges Even (right in the opener When Alpha And Omega Collide, or in Duende), while Oliver has no trouble picking up on his brother’s imagination and freely complements it with a dash of free-spirited, experimental wandering through his dynamic, at times jazzy-sounding bass lines, which bring a tremendously warm, natural and clean sound that is clearly separated in the production and magnificently emphasized. Markus Steffen’s distinctive guitar style yields an interesting observation: he builds most of his sound on acoustic and natural semi-acoustic approaches. Markus lays his foundation on broken chords, and often just bare picking of the strings is enough to artfully cover the sonic backdrop. Still, these acoustic touches are elegantly complemented by volleys of distorted riff avalanches, added to the songs purely as a seasoning to ramp up the drama of the mood. The vocals even recall, at moments, the vocals of America’s Enchant (the chorus of Iconic). They’re completely unique, aimed at covering the middle to upper registers, with an elegant touch of improvisation that adds color to the whole expression, especially in the sophisticated way melodies are rounded off on the way out of verses, and you get the feeling that Menses’ voice undulates dynamically through the album (especially prominent in Where Our Shadow Sleep). The vocals are tailor-made for the band’s exploratory, experimental drive. The band also manages to pull off another demanding attribute of progressive rock with great success. That’s the attribute of unpredictability, which the very word fragmentation (the falling apart of motifs) may already have suggested to you. In Leftovers, between 4:57 and 5:17, you’ll witness a slightly distorted, seductively howling bass line that retrogradely brings straight back to life the pioneering work of Chris Squire (of Yes, from the era of the Yes album “Fragile,” released in 1972). A track with a seriously angry opening is Mounting Castles In A Blood Red Sky, with a sharp touch of psychedelia and a moment where fragmentation definitively overpowers the red thread of compactness in the songs. The guys wove a recording of a Martin Luther King speech to a crowd into the track. This is the song marked by the greatest dose of experimental, adventurous dynamics and the recognizable Sieges Even voice. The contrast of clean, natural-sounding passages washing into avalanches of riff distortion is outstanding. It’s the album’s only instrumental, and it captures the icy cold of utter hopeless despair at society’s degeneration, of carefree existence lost in the delusion of falling for the lies of chosen leaders. The album then reaches the band’s most majestic moment of musical expression in creating an atmosphere of total tragedy in the closing title track, which brings a further upgrade of the refined criticism of the tyranny of US politics. In the second half of Paramount, Sieges Even suddenly sail off toward a full-on jazz interlude, led even by a short alto sax solo. Brilliant.
“Paramount” is one of this year’s artistic peaks in progressive rock. And I’ll say it once more: Sieges Even have nothing to do with the “metal” tag. The songs are, one and all, strikingly vivid jigsaw puzzles built from multiple motif turns and tempo changes, and everything flows perfectly smoothly through the album’s running time. Thanks to the vividness and distinctiveness of the band’s musical language, the album is over in the blink of an eye. With “Paramount,” time is nowhere near stopping for Sieges Even. “Paramount” brings an artistic step up from its predecessor, with even greater expressiveness and even clearer definition and profile in the band’s renewed style, which keeps developing positively in its own understanding of musical art. Intelligent, full of creativity, and therefore tremendously exciting. A step into a whole new musical dimension, a fusion of a special kind. This is an album for all you progressive/art rock maniacs who are dying for something different and special!
Lineup
Arno Menses – vocals
Markus Steffen – guitar
Alex Holzwarth – bass guitar
Oliver Holzwarth – drums
Production
Sieges Even & Kristian Kohlmannslehner
Track list
01. When Alpha And Omega Collide
02. Tidal
03. Eyes Wide Open
04. Iconic
05. Where Our Shadows Sleep
06. Duende
07. Bridge To The Divine
08. Leftovers
09. Mounting Castles In The Blood Red Sky
10. Paramount
Album length: 61.41
