I discovered the English of 'HeKz' in 2018 with their third album 'Invicta' which I put in my playlist of the best progressive metal releases of 2018 and its successor 'Terra Nova' is now available for streaming since November 3, 2023. And for this new baby, the English are releasing not one but two CDs lasting 85 minutes which "weaves a tale of ambition, duality and the relentless fight to conquer the darkest parts of one's personality to become the person you were born to be". In terms of the line up, the leader 'Matt Young' made the decision during the covid period, given the difficulties for the artists of the group to meet to rehearse, to completely change it with instrumentalists who can record remotely: we now find the guitarist 'Mark Bogert' ('Knight Area'), the violinist 'Irina Markevich' and the drummer 'Moyano El Buffalo' to which we can add for 'Terra Nova', the keyboardists 'Pieter Beemsterboer' and 'Adam Holzman', the violinist 'Lucia La Rezza' and the horn player 'Nic Weaver'.
I might as well tell you right away that we have an extraordinary work and if you are a fan of epic progressive with long developments, you should quickly adopt 'Terra Nova' because, nothing but the centerpiece 'The Silent Man' (we'll talk about it again) is worth the purchase of this album. And yet, the beginning of the album invites us to enter little by little into this dense and rich work with the eponymous title which is not strictly speaking progressive but which unfolds a first catchy melody in a hard rock à la 'Uriah Heep', then, 'Sabotage' adds a touch of progressive taking us back a few decades to the era of 'Deep Purple' thanks to the characteristic sounds of the Hammond, and 'Horizons' drives the point home with a melodic composition that could being a cross between 'Kansas' and 'Uriah Heep'. Place for the energetic 'Mayday' which inaugurates the progressive part with a huge instrumental part in which Irina Markevich's violin plays cat and mouse with the guitar of 'Mark Bogert', then, after all the energy transmitted in the first four tracks, 'So For Gone' softens the subject with a magnificent ballad that 'Matt Young' embellishes with a very moving vocal performance. Follows 'The Tower' which, this time, takes us into an epic composition of almost 10 minutes which is one of my favorites of the album because it brings together everything I love about progressive with this mixture of rock and well-balanced metal while keeping melodic lines always very accessible, the succession of increases in power followed by relaxations being admirable, not to mention the numerous changes of rhythm throughout the track. 'Lifeline' ends the first CD and continues in this progressive vein with a slow tempo which unfolds a beautiful melody and which offers remarkable vocal arrangements, the central instrumental part including the guitar solo being magnificent. We change CDs with 'Too Far Gone' continuing our beautiful progressive journey with an instrumental introduction which takes the time to develop an epic part before the arrival of the catchy guitar riffs of 'Mark Bogert' then accompanied by the violin of Irina Markevitch' and which then develops more classic hard rock with new resplendent choirs which give an irresistible desire to accompany them, then, 'I Am The Thrall' is yet another progressive gem and perhaps the most theatrical composition of the album with a succession of tensions and relaxations, the rhythm section making numerous tempo changes, 'Matt Young' giving a high-level vocal performance and 'Adam Holzman' rewarding us with a brilliant and breathtaking keyboard solo. Summarizing the musical fresco 'The Silent Man' of almost 25 minutes would require considerably lengthening my column which is already very long: I would simply say that you have to listen to it many times to fully absorb it and go through all the nooks and crannies contained in this very rich progressive labyrinth, all the artists bringing, here and there, their stones to the building to make it a sort of standard meter of progressive in the broad sense, in short, the ultimate title which propels you into the highest spheres of Music with a finale that will tear all the tears from your body. After so much emotion, the second part of 'Terra Nova' which closes this beautiful journey may seem in the background but is nevertheless a composition which could easily claim to be the major title of a very good progressive rock album and which puts a last time forward all the actors of this album, an admirable vocal performance from 'Matt Young', magnificent guitaristic perigrinations from 'Mark Bogert', very beautiful violin accompaniment from Irina Markevich', a surgical rhythm section from 'Moyano El Buffalo', without forgetting Adam Holzman's fabulous keyboard solo and these dazzling final choruses.
In summary, in a year, we can count on the fingers of one hand the albums that will remain forever engraved in your memory and that you will have immense joy listening to again. For my part, 'Terra Nova' fits into this already long list of progressive through the ages and should also become in the years to come a cult album for many fans of this style... | |
