Label: Frontiers Music. Srl.
Release date: June 11, 2021
Production: Terra Odium
Album length: 52.27 min
Genre: Progressive Metal
Rating: 9.0/10
Terra Odium are a new progressive metal outfit, fronted by a crew of old hands. Norway. And no, we’re not talking about greenhorns here, but seasoned musicians. The core of the band is two members of the former Norwegian prog metallers Spiral Architect, namely singer Øyvind Hægeland (ex-Arcturus) and drummer Asgeir Mickelson (also of Veil Of Secrets, ex-Ihsahn, ex-Borknagar), with whom he put out that band’s only album back in 2000. For guitar duties they tapped the former Manitou guitarist, the excellent Bollie Fredriksen. The studio debut “Ne Plus Ultra” has a special energy, a special vibe, which Terra Odium would have had a hard time conjuring up without the presence of the iconic Steve Di Giorgio (Sadus, Testament, Death, the list is simply too long,…). Honestly, you’d read those names and think the thing needs nothing more. Still, the band felt the arrangements could use some extra keyboards and orchestration, so they brought in Jon Phipps, who has worked with Dragonforce, Moonspell and Angra, among others.
“Ne Plus Ultra” is a distinctly dark album. That’s exactly what makes it so appealing. It’s hard to get any blacker than this (in progressive metal). On top of that you get the outrageous technical virtuosity that tags along at every step, and in abundance, where the band loves to dive into some completely unmelodic (atonal), derailed and unexpected twists of played lines that surprise the listener at every turn and fill them with uncertainty, since they never know where the band will head next. In short, an album that keeps you busy the whole way through.
Ne Plus Ultra is interesting in that it’s a particularly colorful mix of influences. Yes. Spiral Architect come with the territory automatically, but given that they only have one album out, what makes this thing interesting is the influence of older bands. You have to head to the US in the mid-eighties, when Fates Warning wrote and recorded “Awaken the Guardian,” for instance, or when Watchtower put out their debut “Energetic Disassembly.” That’s what The Shadow Lung sounds like. Since Di Giorgio puts his distinctive stamp on this album, the energy occasionally comes close to that of Control Denied, even Death and Sadus. Scandinavians have no trouble creating dark atmospheres. It’s their home turf. Back in the early nineties, Conception were one of those Norwegian progressive metal bands, and “Ne Plus Ultra” has quite a few compositional figures that bring Conception to mind (they reactivated recently, by the way). Since Bollie Fredriksen is an outstanding guitar shredder, he sometimes comes across like a distant Michael Romeo, especially over some of the orchestral arrangements, and the vibe even drifts toward Symphony X at times, though those moments are rare and occasional, but noticeable. That it’ll appeal to Dream Theater fans goes without saying, even though Terra Odium don’t lean on them directly, but the song structures are such that fans of the very early Dream Theater will take to it quickly. But as said, first and foremost Terra Odium are closest to early Fates Warning and Watchtower.
If anyone came away from the previous paragraph thinking Terra Odium are just good imitators, let me be clear: these are only influences, an energetic vibe you feel and pick up on when you listen to the album. It’s downright incredible that an album like this is happening in 2021, though not surprising, since quite a few newer-generation progressive metal bands are drawing inspiration from the eighties style. Let’s throw in just a few: Zero Hour, Dali’s Dilema, Cynthesis, Wastefall. So. Terra Odium are serious complicators, which is why “Ne Plus Ultra” demands serious attention and serious time, and you have to really dig in. But it pays you back generously, because it unfolds in a distinctly unpredictable way and is ‘quirky’ in its exploring. Even the more technically intricate moments are very well balanced against the passages where the album ‘calms down’ into musicality. Terra Odium are skilled tightrope walkers. The wound-up, ‘shredded’ moments are often contrasted with calmer parts that are ‘sprinkled’ with Di Giorgio’s howling, booming fretless swirling. His bass turns are downright terrifying! A brilliant display of the experimental flexibility and wit that only the most distinguished and accomplished, or let’s just say perfected, musicians can pull off. One of the most interesting songs is Winter, especially its middle section, which even has jazzy touches that Cynic wouldn’t be ashamed of in their best days.
Not to ramble on: “Ne Plus Ultra” is fascinating in every way. A classic progressive metal album lost in time and space. With the production it carries, the bands that inspired it would have been killing it back in the eighties and nineties. The incredible singer Øyvind Hægeland deserves a special mention too, showing off 1,000 and one faces and stringing together some astonishing vocal vibes at the highest technical level. That’s not all. Øyvind Hægeland is also incredibly adaptable and knows how to ease off the gas pedal whenever parts of the songs need a touch of sophistication and softness.
This is an album by experienced old hands who know exactly what they want to achieve when they sit down to compose. Routine, experience, knowledge, talent, no need to list them all. Everything’s been said, and far too little. “Ne Plus Ultra” is tailor-made for demanding music gourmets. The most demanding, or let’s just say (merely) demanding. An excellent achievement in every respect, shrewd in its ideas, shrewd in balancing its exploratory progressive nature with metal bristle. An album with its own kind of charisma, which feels very familiar yet endlessly inviting, because in the same breath it’s a completely original musical adventure.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
