Cover design by Cody McKenna
Style: Progressive rock, progressive metal (Clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: The Dear Hunter, Seventh Wonder, Coheed and Cambria, Dream Theater
Country: US (California)
Release date: 21 October 2024
There are many things in music that I am an absolute sucker for: big, hooky melodies, tasteful genre eclecticism, saxophones. But perhaps my biggest weak point is a good old narrative concept album. From established opus-crafters like The Dear Hunter and Dirt Poor Robins to less well-known upstarts like Adjy, you give me a tastefully crafted story arc peppered with reprises, leitmotifs, and just the right amount of schmaltzy melodrama, and I will hoover that shit up like a starving man at an all-you-can-eat Brazilian steakhouse. Given all this, it was almost inevitable that one-man project The Circle of Wonders (aka Cody McKenna) would come up on my radar sooner or later, and sure enough, his previous concept album, the sprawling III: The Sparrow and the Architect, was floated for my consideration last year. I never ended up reviewing that album, partially because it released smack in the middle of the holidays when I was busy working on end-of-year lists and partially because it never quite grabbed me. It had all the ingredients to be a Certified Ian Classic™ but couldn’t quite put them together, its considerable potential hampered by uneven production and writing as well as a convoluted narrative. Now, a scant ten months later, McKenna has put out another massive double album, the eighty-six-minute IV: Timber. This is his chance to execute upon the potential he showed last time and make something great, but with such a short turnaround, can he really pull it off?
I usually beat around the bush a bit more in answering these rhetorical questions, but holy fuck yes. Everything here somehow just clicks in place so much better from the start, and while there are a number of areas in which definite improvements have been made, there are none quite so obvious as the sheer quality of its melodies. In the realm of conceptual, melodramatic indie-prog, hooks are king, and so far as hooks go, IV: Timber might as well be a Bass Pro Shops. Genuinely, this has some of my absolute favorite choruses of the year, from the soaring, belt-along refrain on “Song of Sorrow” to the determined yet desperate “Carry On” and the lighters-in-the-air waltz of “Death Do Us Part (Never Once)”. It’s shamelessly cheesy, emotional stuff meant to yank at the listener’s heartstrings, and it works, dammit. Plus, in true rock-opera fashion, each one comes back in some way or another for a big ol’ reprise later in the album, and it warms my little theater-kid heart every time.
Of course, those moments wouldn’t be nearly so powerful if the story were a mess, but there, too, McKenna has improved. This time around, he’s traded the laborious, twist-heavy serial killer mystery of the previous album for a straightforward tale of a grief-stricken veteran living as a woodcutter who struggles with suicidal thoughts, tempted toward death by a mysterious witch while his wife attempts to pull him back from the brink. It’s a simple but powerfully resonant narrative, and, thankfully, it’s entirely sung through, with no amateurish spoken-word segments to bring the momentum down. Speaking of singing, McKenna handles pretty much all of the lead vocals himself, and his voice is excellent for the job, a warm, indie-adjacent tenor with just enough weathering in its tone to pull off the protagonist’s worn, world-weary energy. As his higher registers grow more forceful and emotive, there’s a bit more roughness added, reminiscent of Casey Crescenzo’s early work with The Dear Hunter. This adds a heartfelt vibrancy to each climactic moment, though it may, admittedly, be a bit of an acquired taste for those unused to this particular subgenre. There are also a number of guest vocalists who, instead of performing characters themselves, lend backing layers to McKenna’s leads, either harmonizing along with him to add texture or breaking out into intricate, tight bursts of interweaving voices whose excellent arrangements steal the show in their own right.
The musical composition and arrangement have also taken steps up, offering plenty of variety while still keeping a clear sonic identity. The Circle of Wonders has two main drives at its core; on one hand, much of its sound is rooted in melodic, metal-adjacent prog guitar riffs and leads— think a less virtuosic Dream Theater or Seventh Wonder, or maybe a less emo-tinged Coheed. Nearly as prevalent, though, is a strong woodsy, acoustic folk influence that feels apropos for the story’s forested setting, from the warm yet melancholy campfire guitar in its intro to the bouncy, vibrant pulse of “Carry On” and the vaguely medieval, mandolin-led “Isolation”. Throughout the course of the album’s narrative highs and lows, McKenna expertly switches between the two in order to drive an ebb and flow in energy level, with acoustic passages conveying moments of quiet sadness, warmth, and dread alike before metallic riffs crash in to wail out feelings of determination and angst. This is especially evident on longer tracks like centerpiece “Visions of the Dead”, which begins with soft yet foreboding acoustics before spiraling through a cavalcade of aggressive guitars, inhuman vocoder choirs, and classic-rock organ, though not without putting in another lovely, folksy passage as a breather. It does an excellent job of conveying the many different shades of specters and painful memories that haunt our protagonist’s psyche, and not a single one of its sixteen minutes feels wasted.
Of course, even with its many strengths, IV: Timber still isn’t quite a perfect album. There are a few nits to pick, flaws that each pull the album a bit further below a 10. The most apparent is its length; while I’m certainly more open to hefty runtimes than most of my peers, and an admirable effort is made to make sure it’s earned, eighty-six minutes is still a bit much, particularly given the more straightforward story being told. I wouldn’t cut too much—no songs are bad, really—but there’s enough fat that McKenna could have cut a passage here or there so it’s short enough to fit on a CD. The lyrics could also use improvement; while, again, there aren’t any outright stinkers, a lot of the lines here feel merely functional, with basic, cookie-cutter rhyme schemes made more to get the story across than to tell it in an interesting way. It’s not a huge deal, but it lacks the poetic, layered edge that sets the likes of The Dear Hunter and Adjy apart. Finally, there’s one specific pain point, one moment where enjoyable cheesiness curdles into cringe, and that’s the first minute of “Sickness”. In an effort to sell the depths of Timber’s self-loathing, McKenna overacts the hell out his performance, with oh-so-edgy heavy breathing between every line, and it just falls flat. What makes it worse is that the other three minutes of the song are absolutely incredible, a staggeringly powerful climax to the story full of vocal layering that makes me want to clap, weep, and/or kneel before Peak Music. Yet if I recommend it to people, they’ll be immediately hit in the face with sub-community-theater acting. Truly a tragedy.
Regardless of all that, though, it’s hard for me to argue with just how impressive of an achievement it is to put out a follow up album with this much combined quality and quantity in the space of only ten months. Will it resonate as hard with those who aren’t as easy of a mark for such a thing? Probably not, and I can hear the “overrating bastard” calls from my colleagues echoing already. But the bare and simple fact remains that this album’s finale made me shed an actual tear, and any album that does that deserves to be remembered as something truly special. This is a moving, excellently composed album whose impeccable melodies do a phenomenal job of selling its themes of deep, uncompromising love in the face of trauma and despair despite its somewhat plain lyricism. For any fans of prog concept albums that sew their hearts openly and proudly upon their sleeves, I can’t recommend this enough.
Recommended tracks: Inciting Incident I: Song of Sorrow, Visions of the Dead, the entire A Lover’s Pursuit suite, My Dear (Fall of the Redwood)
You may also like: Adjy, Whale Bones, Good NightOwl
Final verdict: 8/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram
The Circle of Wonders is:
– Cody McKenna (all vocals and instruments, except where noted)
With:
Jasmin Corinne – additional backing vocals on “Inciting Incident I: Song Of Sorrow”, “A House On Hallowed Ground”, “Visions Of The Dead”, “A Lover’s Pursuit I-IV”, “Isolation”, “Sickness”, and “My Dear (Fall Of The Redwood)”
Lana Saykali – additional backing vocals on “Inciting Incident I: Song Of Sorrow”, “The Key”, “A Lover’s Pursuit III: The Witch & The Widow”, and “My Dear (Fall Of The Redwood)”
Ryan Curran – additional backing vocals on “Sickness” and “My Dear (Fall Of The Redwood)”
Aaron Zepeda – additional backing vocals on “A House On Hallowed Ground”, “Visions Of The Dead”, “Sickness”, and “My Dear (Fall Of The Redwood)
Kris Pancani – additional backing vocals on “My Dear (Fall Of The Redwood), and tom drum on “Isolation”.
Joslin Badrian – additional backing vocals on “Visions Of The Dead” and “My Dear (Fall Of The Redwood)”
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