Nucleus Torn: Golden Age

Brainchild of Swiss composer Fredy Schneider, Nucleus Torn is releasing Golden Age just about a year after Andromeda Awaiting. This new output has been in the making for quite some time though (three years) and has involved 13 musicians in the process.

Golden Age is said to find its inspiration even deeper in the glorious and epic era of progressive music, the 70's. Indeed, the listener will surely finds hints of that period with references to great masters of this art such as: Genesis and King Crimson for instance. Nucleus Torn is a different breed of cat and still maintain its identity fortunately. Once again, I was melodiously pleased to hear delicate acoustic work on each and every composition. Some of those passages are reminiscent to vintage Genesis, even pre-Hackett time like on Trespass for example. This is not an acoustic album and a nice variety of instrumentation is included. Not only they used electric guitar and bass, you can also listen to upright bass, percussions, flute, piano, violin, keyboards, Hammond organ and saxophone. The lead vocals are of female nature and occasional male ones can be heard too. Personally, I found Anna Murphy's voice monotonous and even stressful when used with emphasis, although not to the point of becoming annoying. The frequent musical breaks and the variation in mood and instrumentation make easily up for this point. As it is commonly the case with prog music, the compositions are well written, elaborate and a couple is the long lasting pleasure type, much to my appreciation. Opening and closing tracks are where the "beef" is to find, so to speak. This is very much the case with "Death Triumphant", where acoustic delicacies meet crushing riffs, sax solos, intensity, harsh vocals and great calmer parts. "Silver" and "Against" left me somewhat cold, not bringing much interest to my ears on the other hand. "Hunger" and "Ash" do have that nice Genesis vibe in their song structure.

Golden Age should appeal to the progressive musical fans in general.

Track listing:
1- Golden Age
2- Hunger
3- Silver
4- Against
5- Ash
6- Death Triumphant

Added: March 11th 2012
Reviewer: Denis Brunelle
Score:
Related Link: Prophecy Productions
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Language: english

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