Progressive Rockers ODIN'S COURT third full-length album, “Deathanity”, is inspired by the negative impact humanity has had on the environment. An ambitious theme perhaps, but certainly not one lacking in seemingly increasing fodder from the daily news.

Fortunately, what could have come across as a bit pretentious or overly ‘preachy’ when aimed towards a heavy music audience does manage to work on some levels. Stylistically, their heavy Jazz-like influenced sound does remind me of Progressive Metal bands like SUSPYRE or MIND’S EYE, but ODIN’S COURT are also good at incorporating atmospheric textures and smooth choruses into their music. These choruses along with the almost “Pop” like melodies on songs such as “Obesite” thus remind one of groups like DEVIN TOWNSEND. Other surprises also turn up, in particular a cover of BEETHOVEN’S “Ode To Joy” which sounds like it could have been taken from a TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA album.

The bands music is quite lush and varied with additional instrumentation of piano, acoustic guitars, horns, and backing female vocals also used on many of the songs. In addition to featuring very good guitar playing (shared by Matt Brookins and Rick Pierpont), the solid bass work of Craig Jackson is also quite prominent on many tracks such as “Esoterica”. Vocalist Matt Brookins voice is rather soft and subdued in the mix and it’s mainly when he unleashes raspy yells on tracks like “Cosmosera” or “Animaulic” that he adds a badly needed sense of energy to the music. Two high profile guest vocalists are also featured on a couple tracks, these being Tom Englund (EVERGREY) on “Mammonific”, and Tony Kakko, (SONATA ARCTICA) on “Crownet”. The latter being my favorite of the two songs mainly for it’s more up-tempo feel. Other favorites included “Volatilestial”, for it's crunchy guitar work, tasty saxophone solo, and ethereal vocals, and also the song “Manifest Destiny” which begins with heavy guitar riffs and later features a trade-off of clean melodic singing and raspier angry vocals, before culminating in a loud Progressive jam. 

Overall, although the songs on the album are fairly good, the inclusion of spoken word sound bites in between the songs (or worse in the middle of the tracks) doesn’t seem to work all that well and is a bit of a disruption when I’d rather just listen to the band's playing. Furthermore, with the album duration coming in at over an hour total, some of the longer and more repetitive parts can also start to get a little monotonous. Still, for what was initially a self-released work (they have since been signed to ProgRock records) it’s a fairly solid effort and with a little more experience and perhaps more assertive vocals from Matt, they could really be onto something great. Definitely a band Prog-heads should watch out for.

(Online August 2, 2008)