Artist: Jupiter Society
Label: Progrock Records
Release: 2009
Runtime: 55:07
Rating: 4/5
Jupiter Society is the project of Carl Westholm, keyboardist of the Swedish bands Krux and Carptree. A concept project. Science fiction. Sadly, I missed the project’s first album, “First Contact/Last Warning”. So “Terraform” is the follow-up, part two. The title “Terraform” could hint at all sorts of things. The cover shows a ship coming in to land. So has it finally found solid ground, where its crew can settle down after endless drifting? In this second part, you sort of chew your way through the lyrics to the conclusion that the concept describes the life of a traveler aboard a spacecraft, wading through a heap of galaxies, hopping across time barriers through black holes, buried under time calculations and distance calculations. When time and distance vanish. Actually, when they lose all meaning. The main character, with an implanted chip meant to fuel his courage and stubbornness on the mission, apparently finds (together with his colleagues) the ideal planet at the end of this theater, where all conflicts disappear, society has no need for God, and isn’t burdened by the historical delusions of grandfathers and great-grandfathers and so on… But the last track leaves the story’s door wide open. That’s the track Beyond These Walls You Are Not My Master, which is especially dark and hopeless in the verses. This way, Westholm apparently wanted to let the listener build their own final opinion, drifting on their own imagination, about what the message of “Terraform” is really all about. On the other hand, Westholm leaves himself a door open to keep developing the concept on a future album. So the story doesn’t necessarily end here.
Those of you who follow progressive rock and metal and keep up with the bands that popped up in the mid-nineties and, especially in the first half of the 2000s, served up some truly standout albums, may already be sensing where Jupiter Society is headed: straight toward the releases of Ayreon, the project of the Dutch wizard Arjen Lucassen. But since Carl Westholm is first and foremost a keyboardist and arranger, you have to take into account that the symphonic element is heavily emphasized in the song arrangements. The use of synthesizers strongly recalls the sense of musical expression close to the taste of keyboardist Finn Zierler. He’s known for a similar but older project, only it’s not Swedish but Danish. Beyond Twilight. The very structure of the songs calls for an atmosphere very close to Beyond Twilight. The songs are dark, played at a mid-tempo pace, propped up by massive, chunky guitar phrases that roll along beneath rich orchestral arrangements. This time around, the lively keyboards are another name for the orchestra.
If nothing else does it, the opening guitar phrase of Siren’s Song/Black Hole will remind you of the similarity to Beyond Twilight. In that phrase, the tonality is deliberately shod with a semitone figure. The slow rolling of the riffs, pushed hard to the front in a chunky guitar production, is built upon by the dark, mildly guttural vocals of Mats Leven, tailored especially for this track. In terms of his singing approach, he creates a rather unusual veil of apocalyptic mood, well known from a band like Manilla Road. The chorus is, of course, melodically “clean” and singable, in the manner of epic symphonic, neoclassical dynamism. When Leven lifts his voice up into the heights, Westholm’s brilliant keyboard arrangements help carry him on their wings. Through its motifs, the atmosphere often flips completely and unexpectedly, reaching a whole new level of quality.
Besides Westholm, the album features a galaxy of fantastic musicians, whom Westholm, like a skilled chess player, deploys masterfully and with an innate feel, according to the feelings he wants to bring to life and the mood of each moment on the album.
This time you’ll have to find your personal favorites yourselves. “Terraform” is an album that slowly sinks in under your skin. It’s crowned by excellent production, filled with the theatrical atmosphere of a rapaciously real drama, in which the final outcome of events always stays hidden from view. It’s an album that will hook everyone looking for a consistently high ambient level, highly dynamic structures in the leading motifs, and, as a result, an unpredictable course of events. This is an album that doesn’t lose the thread for a second. That’s down to its high dynamic flow and excellent distribution of energy. Don’t look in it for a musical revolution, but in terms of atmosphere and style, it captures the character of similar albums that came out 7-10 years ago. It’s a progressive metal album that, at the same time, has no stylistic ties to bands where individual players take center stage, sowing endless galaxies of musical scales. Westholm’s guiding principle is thus to persistently hold an ambience of high tension and unpredictable events. The musical approach of “Terraform” makes it an album that’s “late to the party”, but that’s exactly why it’s all the more interesting, since its evocation of the specifics of a “forgotten energy”, in an era when progressive metal has been pushed into the complete underground, is all the more appealing and exciting. This is an album that’s convincingly outfitted, in quality, from head to toe. So it’ll take you along with it, no trouble at all, on a voyage into a new, different world. All you have to do is surrender to it completely. Let the music guide you.
Lineup
Mats Lev̩n Рvocals
Nils Erikson – vocals
Öivin Tronstad – vocals
Carl Westholm – keyboards, programming, arrangements
Ulf Edelönn – guitar
Peter Söderström – guitar
Kulle – guitar
Markus Jidell – guitar
Sebastian Blyberg – bass
Stefan Fanden – bass
Leif Edling – bass
Lars Sköld – drums
Jonas Källsbäck – drums
Christer Jansson – drums
Production
Carl Westholm
Track list
1. New Universe (9:01)
2. Rescue and Resurrection (Presumed Dying Part II) (9:55)
3. Cranial Implant (7:13)
4. Into the Dark (4:33)
5. Siren Song/Black Hole (8:19)
6. Terraforming (7:26)
7. Beyond These Walls You Are Not my Master (The Enemy Part II) (8:40)
