HOURGLASS - review added 5th August 2009
Album Review: Oblivious To The Obvious (2009)
For fans of: Prog Rock... and vastness on a vast scale
There are no two ways about it; this is a massive album. Although it contains a mere 10 songs it lasts the grand total of 139 minutes. The longest track is over 30 minutes in length.
Hourglass, the creators of this biblically proportioned behemoth come from Orem in Utah. Oblivious To The Obvious has been 5 years in the making and follows 2004's release Subconscious. The band is Brick Williams (guitars), Michael Turner (lead vocals), John Dunston (drums), Jerry Stenquist (keyboard) and Eric Blood (bass & vocals).
As you can probably tell from the length this is a veritable buffet of prog. The sound varies from serene instrumental interludes to full-house metal with guttural vocals. The dominating sound is progressive but never crosses the threshold into inaccessibility. What it does do is go on a bit - a really BIG bit.
Opening track 'On The Brink' is a case in point. It has some seriously cool moments: the heavy sections, in what could presumably be referred to as the chorus, are bordering on the riotously catchy. But the remainder of the track doesn't reach the same highs. In fact it follows several different paths and ends up putting doubt into your mind whether you're still listening to the same track. It's as if they've taken one good track and two or three not so good ones and squished them all together. With just the best bits compressed into four minutes, this could have been astonishing.
'Homeward Bound' - with its mix of funk elements, jazz piano and atmospheric wanderings - is a more cohesive work. the best bits aren't anywhere near the level of the first track's highs, but it's a more solid overall track. 'Pawn II' starts with a Middle-Eastern flavour, then migrates into a heavier sound that's often busy and directionless. The basic sound is nice but the song is repetitious and not as technically impressive as it should be.
'Faces' is a slow, melodic, piano-led ballad that gradually builds before morphing halfway through into an interstellar Pink Floyd homage... then into a progressive jazzy rock track. Again it's way longer than it needs to be, but it just about works. '38th Floor' comes in at the grandiose length of 21mins+. It's a well played track, but forcing yourself to sit there and listen to it repeatedly in its entirety is hard work. As pleasant background music it works well. As something to focus your full attention I'm not so sure.
The second disc begins with 'Facade', a flouncy track with metal, funk and all sorts of other styles coursing through it's centre. Some of the guitar riffs are better sounding than a dragster at maximum revs, but again they are buried in an onslaught of experimentation and frippery. 'Skeletons' has some even more impressive guitar sounds. At just over 7 minutes it's one of the shorter segments. If more of the album had been like this - progressive but to the point - it would have been considerably better.
'Estranged' is a bright clear ballad, again shorter than the album average, and again all the better for it. It doesn't have the best vocal performance, but still makes more sense than tracks 2 or 3 times its length. 'Delirium' heads back towards madness with random note structures and jazz-fusion tomfoolery. The final track is a 30 minute mountain split into 5 segments. Brilliant or self indulgent? You decide...
Oblivious To The Obvious is, in some ways, an impressive achievement. It boasts breathtaking musicianship and plenty of heart and soul, but the end result is like on of those Hollywood blockbusters that lasts 3 and a half hours. You can feel in your numb butt cheeks it would have been so much more entertaining edited down to half that time. Die hard prog fans will lap this stuff up, purely for its pomposity, but for me the good stuff is far outweighed by the so-so... and that's not enough to keep my interest.
Check out... The first track. It's the closest to brilliance.
Track List:
Disc 1
1. On the Brink
2. Homeward Bound
3. Pawn II
4. Faces
5. 38th Floor
Disc 2
1. Facade
2. Skeletons
3. Estranged
4. Delirium (instrumental)
5. Oblivious to the Obvious:
> Part 1 - No Chance
> Part 2 - Realization
> Part 3 - Remember Me
> Part 4 - In My Hands
> Part 5 - Redemption (instrumental)
Artist's website(s): Hourglass , MySpace
