Review: Sound Struggle – The Bridge

Style: Jazz Fusion, Djent, Progressive Metalcore (mixed vocals)
Review by: Mathis
Country: New York, United States
Release date: 19 November, 2021

[EDITOR’S NOTE: This review was originally published in the “Albums We Missed in 2021” Issue of The Progressive Subway.]

Is your prog too boring? Are you sick of all of the new albums that are “For Fans Of” Periphery, Haken, Dream Theater, Tool, Caligula’s Horse, etc.?  What you need is something fresh and fun; something that will whiten your teeth, improve your posture, make you successful, burn that pesky fat in six months or less, and replace the need to ever wring your mop out ever again! Sound Struggle may have the perfect album for you! The Bridge can’t do any of that fancy stuff I just listed, but it sure is fresh, and it sure is fun!

Sound Struggle is the brainchild of Cameron Rasmussen, but the project is way more than just him. He is sort of like the ringleader. I counted around fifteen other musicians that played a part in making this album, and I am confident that there were plenty of other folks that aided in the production of The Bridge as well. The Bridge is a concept album about a young man that journeys to find his mother who left him as a child. He eventually finds her and learns that she is part of a religious organization, naturally he, joins her, only to find out later that he has joined a corrupt group of cultists. It is a pretty cool story, but honestly, you don’t need to follow it at all to enjoy the album. This album is just a bundle of fun, but be warned it is hecking long. I guess Cameron had been writing since the last Sound Struggle album which came out six years ago, so he had an insane amount of content ready for release, and to add on top of that Cameron has announced that Sound Struggle has been officially disbanded. The album is long because he wanted to release everything he had written and end it with a bang, he isn’t doing it for the precious prog points.

Congrats on making it through the little history lesson, now it’s time for recess baby! The Bridge is a jazzy, djenty, oddities a plenty album. After the intro track, you are launched into the thick of it with “Foresight”, one of my favorite tracks on the album with a catchy chorus and blaring horns. It djents too, but that falls by the wayside because your brain just loves to focus on that staccato trumpet blast with the crescendo right after, or maybe you get caught up in the noodly lead guitar. There is an immense amount of depth to almost every one of the eighteen songs on this album, so much so that it will take more than just a few listens to fully grasp what is happening at any given point.

If you are a fan of Arch Echo you may have noticed something sounds familiar here, and this is no coincidence! Four of the five members of Arch Echo are ex-Sound Struggle members, but more than that, the reason for the similarities is because all of the bass guitar in The Bridge is performed by Arch Echo’s bassist Joe Calderone. It doesn’t stop there though. Adom Rafowitz and Joey Izzo are both featured multiple times in the album, these two are the masters of melody in Arch Echo. Adam is a genius guitarist, and Joey shreds his keyboard just as masterfully. This whole album is like the buffer, scarier, and darker elder sibling of Arch Echo, and it is amazing. Older bro also happens to have a thing for brass and woodwind instruments, which makes this album so unlike any other boring concept album.

There are way too many songs to cover, but here is a little overview of what you might find scattered throughout The Bridge. Lots and lots of amazing guitar solos, a guitar, and a trumpet taking turns serenading each other (“Decisions”), surprise vocals on what you thought was an instrumental track, a beautiful string quartet intro, rapping, a stanky bass clarinet riff, a sad soft song, a happy soft song, a saxophone solo, and much more!

The Bridge was one of my favorite releases of 2021, but boy howdy is it long. An hour and fifty four minutes to be exact, and it is split into two discs so that may help some listeners but the bottom line is that it is an insane amount of time to listen to such involved music. I only have one other issue and that is that on occasion the clean vocals sound a bit incapable, specifically when trying to reach higher notes. I don’t think the vocalist specializes in this style of music, but he does very well with the few softer songs on the album. Despite these shortcomings, I think the album is nothing short of remarkable, I just wish it could help me burn off some excess fat.

Recommended tracks: Foresight, Decisions, Vogel, Try To Fly
Recommended for fans of: Arch Echo, BTBAM
You may also like: Rototypical, Step In Fluid, Electrocution 250
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter

Label: Independent

Sound Struggle is:
– Cameron Rasmussen (all lyrics and compositional arrangements, guitars, mandolin, backing vocals, synth programming)
– Micah Pewter (drums)
– Joe Calderone (bass)
– Tre Watson (vocals)
– Chloe Rowlands (trumpet, flugelhorn
– Brian Krock (alto sax)
– Jared Yee (tenor sax)
– Audrey Hayes (violin)
– Adriana Molello (violin)
– Kayla Williams (viola)
– Alon Bisk (cello)
– Adam Rafowitz (guitar solos on tracks: 5, 10, 16)