roswell six – terra incognita: beyond the horizon (2009)

i might just spare you the apologetic foreword that it has been heck of a long time again since i last posted something here, so the next entry’s gotta be about something real good (for the sake of compensation, i guess). or, you might’ve just read it.
but what’s first and foremost worth a mention about beyond the horizon, is that it belongs to a particular (not all that rare, but not so common either) category of albums, within which it proudly stands out of its own.
most albums are “just” about the music (and what else? i hear you ask), some are an attempt to put something else into music, a story of whatever kind (like concept albums do, broadly speaking). and a few are capable of merging both succesfully with no detriment for either. at this point i don’t even need to say beyond the horizon is obviously one of the latter.
so what’s behind this very nice, and varied, prog rock/metal output? one name is the key: kevin j. anderson. surprisingly enough, he has nothing to do with the music industry, not even with music itself. he’s no musician, no producer, nor anything of the sorts. he’s a famed sci-fi/fantasy novelist. what binds him to prog music is, simple as that, the fact he loves it and uses it as a source of inspiration for his works. till the day he decided to tighten this bond.
he racked up a bunch of talented musicians and had them write and play the music to the first book of his planned trilogy terra incognita, “the edge of the world”. the result is sort of a soundtrack to his book, which, just like any other soundtrack, may as well be listened with no connection to the story – and here i mean, without having to read the book.
what’s striking about it, is that it’s an excellent work music-wise, so again, regardless the story. you might or might not be a fan of (high) fantasy, you might like or not like adventure stories set in imaginary worlds inhabited by horrifying sea-monsters and corageous sailors — but chance is you’ll find the music pretty intriguing of its own. the musicians involved all share an indisputably good background, spanning from saga‘s michael sadler to shadow gallery‘s gary wehrkamp. what will immediately strike prog music lovers though, is the notable appearance of lana lane and james labrie. whether or not you like his voice, there’s no doubt it’s a very characteristic one, way easy to recognise and definitely fitting in this context (to let one example speak for all, he leaves quite a mark on the slow-paced, balladesque “anchored”, which i was lucky enough to hear first when i gave the album the first listening). as to the former, we all know there’s no lana lane without her husband, keyboardist-composer erik norlander. he was actually chosen to compose the music and sort of headline the project.
i haven’t heard enough of his (apparently excellent) work to be a trustworthy critic of his, but i’ll admit straight away that he did an overwhelming job for roswell six. the songwriting is fresh and original without being experimental, and yet catchy and most likely to gain your attention at the very first listen. what we may call the main theme to the album does underline it all, echoing from the beginning to the end, but it doesn’t go so far as to making it boring or expected. the slow, calm themes (the triplet “letters in bottle”, “halfway”, “anchored”, later followed by “beyond the horizon”) alternate succesfully with the faster-paced, heavier ones (“the call of the sea”, “here be monsters”), to create a convincing amalgam that flows smoothly from start to finish.
whether this falling together of all the pieces of the puzzle is to thank to the mastery of mr norlander rather than the sum of the single performances, or the idea behind it all itself, or more likely a mix of all the previous — beyond the horizon is worth the purchase. it is literaly a musical journey to lands yet unexplored (unless you’ve already read the book!), in the footsteps of the best (neo)prog tradition. to many of you the name norlander might already be an assurance; for me it wasn’t, but the concept behind this album was way too intriguing not to give it a chance. and i must say it totally proved worth it.

thus spake the cennsor: 8/10