Style: Traditional (mixed vocals)
Review by: Andrew
Country: US-CA
Release date: 8 November, 2019
NOTE: This album was originally included in the November 2019 issue of The Progressive Subway.
A month or two ago, Quintessence from the Prog Discord sent me the link to this album and the message “You might like this btw.” And I’ll be damned if I didn’t really want to like this record. I reaaaally wanted to love it.
The record was Eidolon, the sophomore album from Sacramento, California progressive metal quintet Lunar. Featuring a truly colossal, star-studded guest list, Eidolon is a 7 track concept album about, as far as I can tell, the human life cycle and how it parallels the timeline of the universe. The guest list is far too long to list here, but you can find it in the credits on the bandcamp page. With household prog names like Richard Henshall, Diego Tejeida, and Raphael Weinroth-Browne plus many others, I went into this record with fantastically high hopes.
Unlike one of my other albums this week, this is undoubtedly a prog metal album. The band lists Haken, Leprous, and Opeth among others as primary influences, and these influences definitely show. Let me start with the positives here – the production (besides clean vocals) is pretty fantastic, with each instrument being allowed to shine independently while still meshing together well. The songwriting is overall quite well done. Each song is cohesive despite the frequent changes of mood, feel, or tempo. Featuring a mix of clean and harsh vocals as well as female guest vocals popping up occasionally, the album stays fresh despite the runtime of over an hour. Also contributing to the fresh sounds, Lunar uses an array of nontraditional instruments including violin, cello, harp, and flute.
Now let me talk about the things that could have been better. Apparently, the lead singer, Chandler Mogel, used to be (or still is?) in a Foreigner tribute band, and unfortunately (or fortunately, I don’t know you), sounds like a singer of a Foreigner tribute band in this album. The clean vocals are definitely the weakest aspect of the sound. Additionally, the clean vocals are mixed weirdly, sounding shallow and completely separate from the rest of the music which makes clean-sung sections sound disjointed and jarring.
Despite the shortcomings, this is a really solid release and I can absolutely see diehard Haken fans digging the hell out of this. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked Eidolon. I wanted to love it but I just couldn’t.
Recommended tracks: Comfort, Hypnotized, Your Long Awaited Void
Recommended for fans of: Haken, Opeth, Structural Disorder
Final verdict: 7.5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | RYM page
Label: Divebomb Records – Bandcamp | YouTube | Facebook
Lunar is:
– Alex Bosson (drums, percussion)
