The brand new IQ album is out for some times
now. And it is almost a double album.
I say
almost because the darkly named ‘road of bones’ is single album that
exist in a special edition with 45 or so minutes of bonus music.
So the first
question is: is that bonus disc any worth?
Well
actually the first question should be the first disc is any good?
For those
who do not know IQ, they are a Neo prog band from England. Lots of keyboards and nice
guitar sounds with a broken voice like (and full of cryptic lyrics) front man
in the guise of Peter Nicholls.
For those
who know them, we recognise the IQ sound (hell we have almost the first line up
of the band, baring keyboardist Martin Orford, casualty of the download war)
but with an edgier sound.
The guitars
of Mike Holmes are more into riffs than solo on this release that sounds
definitely more metal, or at least darker.
And the
lyrics and the songs show that.
Hence the
serial killer (that Steven Wilson would not forsake) song that gives the name
of the album: the road of bones or the
not very bright future of living together in until the end.
All the
songs (with the short exception of calm and peaceful Ocean) are very dark and loaded with heavy riffs and hard bass
lines.
And it is a
good one. Great lengthy songs, very moody as IQ tends to do them. A nice
addition much more crafted and built than the previous one, Frequency.
So back to
our previous question, what is this bonus CD all about ? Covers ? Crappy demoes
?
Well no,
you have full length songs and instrumentals. Fully produced and original, some
could have been on the main dish (Ten
million demons but the disc would have been waaaay too dark) but the ‘mood’
of these songs do not really fit the album. Could they have make a EP-album on
their own ? I would say almost. We’ve seen fill in songs worst than those.
But
strangely, the concept as a double album does not really fit for between the
first disc and the second, there are too much differences and yet they are all
quality products.
So people
into IQ or who wants to discover the band, can buy this new album but preferably the
double discs version, the second being not exactly a full album and way to good
to be simply a bonus one. So great bunch of music for less than two albums !
Goody !
