Band: Invisigoth
Band Website: www.myspace.com/invisigothmusic
Label: ProgRock Records
Label Website: www.progrockrecords.com
Release Date: 2007
It’s pretty easy to find yourself judging a book by its cover. We do it all the time, whether we admit it or not. That was me upon seeing the new release from a band called Invisigoth with their first recording called Alcoholocaust. “I’ll bet I know what this will sound like” I said to myself. And then I put the disc in the player. All was not what it seemed. In fact Invisigoth wasn’t actually a ‘band’; it was two people; Cage who deals with all the instrumentation and Viggo Domino who handles the vocals.
The CD Alcoholocaust starts off with “Stripsearch” a short (4:32) but very aggressive crunchy guitar and staccato style that immediately brings to mind everything prog-metal but then track two “Ancient” has an almost epic-movie sound filled with acoustic strumming and a Byzantine rhythm supported by Sitar-ish accents. In fact the nine tracks here all have a huge sound. When I said epic-movie I mean big. The music is full, rich in dynamics, giant swells of notes and huge crescendos. The actual sound alternates between the heavier guitar and vocals and a more moody drama. The vocals tend to be mostly on the dramatic side following the melodic structure of the music as opposed to carving out its own path. And that works really well in this case. The music created by Cage is far more varied that you might image at first glance. Some songs like “Poison Drip” have that metal, double kick-drum going on, only to make room for a gothic drama developed by loads of keyboards. But throughout these compositions are moments of great contrast, moving fully away from the more aggressive side and incorporating elements of majesty and drama. This is, and I hate to keep repeating myself, epic-scale music.
If you need some reference points, the music and style of Invisigoth had moments of Dream Theater, Therion and Carptree mixed together. This is definitely a disc you don’t want to judge based on first impressions. Repeated listening brought out all kinds of details I missed first time around. I have to say, I’m glad I gave Invisigoth a chance. It would have been too easy to simply cast it straight into the prog-metal section. Instead I found there was a lot more going on here than first meets the ear. Thoroughly enjoyable!