Beardfish – Destined Solitude Review
Beardfish – Destined Solitude
Rating: 3.0/5.0 – Pretty good
Label: InsideOut
Band Websites: myspace.com/beardfishband | http://www.beardfish.argh.se
Apparently, someone forgot to inform Beardfish that 1970 has graciously left us behind to suffer without it. But, of course, how one actually feels about that is very much a personal thing. I’m going to try to be as objective about this record as I can be, because while these guys aren’t really my style I do appreciate certain things about them and their new album Destined Solitude.
First, let me say that it has taken me a very, very long time to produce this new review for a couple of reasons, first there are personal reasons (i.e., moving and so forth), but also because Beardfish is a weird freakin’ band and I’ve really had to take time digest this album for what it is. So what is it? Well, it’s a lot of fairly young Swedish guys playing 70s influenced progressive rock which sounds pretty much like a blend of the classics, think Yes, Genesis, and so forth. The band has a harder edge to them, at times, even launching into death metal growls at one point, but for the most part the band’s angel-voiced vocalist waxes not-quite poetically along with winding passages, soaked in organ and, from the sounds of it, bong water.
From a purely musical standpoint, Destined Solitude is a great album. The musical approach is very much deeply entrenched in the 1970s, but that doesn’t take away from the obvious musical talent that these guys have. With songs winding up to 15 minutes long, somehow Beardfish manage to really write engaging music which catches one at every single stage of this album. However, the musical excellence and variability is offset by meaningless and irritating vocals which are unable to compete with the musical technicality, and instead end up winding, amelodic and uninteresting.
Another issue that a lot of modern progressive bands face, I think, is that there was something instrinsically modern about the progressive movement that was happening throughout the world in the 1970s. Call it the Zeitgeist, but that same feeling is gone, and I think that this is best reflected in Beardfish’s lyrics. Ranging from non-sense, to embarrassing lyrics about lone-wolves and life being a long queue to the bathroom, Destined Solitude suffers from what feels like a total lack of lyrical inspiration. In fact, if I had a choice between vocals and no vocals, I’d definitely go with no vocals for these guys. The music is great, fun to listen to and interesting but the lyrics and vocals make it worse and even occasionally.. well, bad.
Of course, across the board, if you’re really into progressive rock you’ll probably enjoy this album. It’s definitely not a metal album by any stretch of the imagination—as the styles range from jazz to rap and only a minor foray into death metal—but the musicianship is both interesting and compelling. Now, if only they’d take a lesson from Rush and learn that writing good progressive rock is both about being musically interesting and writing engaging melodies and hooks, these guys would be excellent. But, one wonders if music of this variety hasn’t had its day in the sun already and if bands like Beardfish aren’t the nostalgic echoes of an age long past.
