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Spheric Universe Experience: Live in London 2016

The locker room humor about live albums is "they're live!" The listener gets to hear to the good, the bad and the ugly of their favorite band. Studio albums some have said are basically your first date all dressed up on their best behavior. Depending on your taste it's hard to know which direction is the right course. I remember listening to a Kansas live album and nearly passing out when hearing one of my favorite singers sounding like he swallowed a box of razor blades. On the other end, I heard an Accept live album that was ironically better than the live show I bought a ticket to see. Don't mess with Udo.

In short you never really know what you are getting into when you decide to purchase and listen to a live album. Maybe it's a gamble for everyone involved. The very first thing I heard when playing SUE's Live in London 2016 is clarity. It's most rare to be able to hear the vocalist, the drummer and the lead guitarist distinctively on a live recording. The best technology is no guarantee.

I'm told in the mixing and mastering process certain decisions are made based on the quality of the recording. Which is probably why I could hear that violin in Kansas so distinctively while its singer sounded like he was being mugged in Times Square. Fair or not ---they don't call it show music, it's called show business. Still love you Kansas, but damn.

I applaud the strategy of the band and the studio staff executed with Live in London 2016 because the obvious should not be overlooked or misheard. They picked the right few songs that learnt themselves to the live band experience and its live recording effort. These were the right choices since the studio staff achieved an acoustic balance on this record. It's nearly a studio recording in front of a few thousand screaming fans.

The first track "The New Eve" is a perfect example of the live balance captured and the perfect song to open this live album recording. You hear the audience, the liveness, the vocalist singing his way to a connection with people wanting to hear him, and the guitar riffs are fantastic and unusual since this hybrid mix of hard rock and metal fusion is catchy but confidently progressive in its stylistic structure. The second track "In This Place" is a harder metal fusion nearly thrash song punching threw the crowd whom are recorded as an audience should be recorded: screaming a little, enjoying themselves and not overpowering the singer or the show. Past live albums of other bands have allowed the audience to scream without a filter or an editor for 65 minutes. I suspect it was done to prove their credibility on the "live" front, but really folks I didn't find this money on the streets. Nor do the fans.

If you are seeking to keep it real, rush out and secure a copy of this live musical opus. Though it may seem short with only five tracks, the last two "Echoes of the Stars" and "The Key" are nearly twenty minutes combined and showcase how Spheric Universe Experience care about getting it right for their fans. I highly recommend this live recorded album. It was sincerely made with you in mind.


Track Listing 5:59
1) The New Eve (Live) 4:50
2) In This Place (Live) 6:53
3) Sceptic (Live) 9:01
4) Echoes of the Stars (Live) 11:09
5) The Key (Live)

Added: May 1st 2017
Reviewer: Mark Antony Rossi
Score:
Related Link: Band Facebook Page
Hits: 1394
Language: english

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