Six Via Six are bass guitarist, vocalist and keyboardist Robert Berry – who has recorded with Keith Emerson and Carl Palmer – plus guitarist Ian Crichton from Canadian proggers Saga and drummer Nigel Glockler, a veteran of Saxon, who has additionally performed with Asia.However their particular person chemistry produces a extra wide-ranging method than their CVs would possibly suggest in this 2nd album.
Their ‘feels like’ listing is in depth. There’s an overlap with Spock’s Beard and Flying Colours; and in spite of Glockler’s background in steel, Six Via Six are extra onerous rock. Going additional again, it feels a protected wager that they’ve absorbed some Blue Öyster Cult, Deep Pink and the melodic wallop of Kansas and Styx. However there’s much more right here but even so.
Recorded in San Francisco, Past Shadowland has an expansive, widescreen recorded sound with vibrant vocal melodies and with synths and electronics infiltrating their energy trio method. And when Crichton will get the wind in his sails, the consequences are impressive.
It’s heartening and surely price citing that those veterans pump out a powerful kilowattage of power
His solo on Spectre starts with elliptical choosing patterns, then a chug with dampened strings acts a release pad out into the shredosphere, then backpedal once more thru extravagant bent notes that remind of Allan Holdsworth with a bit of the audaciousness of Jeff Beck.
We shouldn’t in point of fact be stunned any further by way of the longevity of musicians. However Crichton is 67; Berry isn’t telling however has been energetic for the reason that Seventies; and Glockler is 71 and has been rocked by way of well being problems. So it’s heartening and surely price citing that those veterans pump out a powerful kilowattage of power.
Past Shadowland comes throughout as remarkably contemporary and punchy. At the floor it’s possibly a tad much less bombastic than their debut, however one can pay attention proof of Crichton’s declare that this new subject material is extra nuanced and adventurously structured, and there’s so much happening across the band’s large tunes.
Wren starts underpinned by way of a sequential synth, with Berry’s rubbery bass and commanding vocals – that have the texture of Greg Lake and John Wetton about them – operating up in opposition to crunching energy chords spiced up with a bit dissonance, which turns out to show the melody inside-out.
Obiliex is structured round acoustic guitar and is extra reflective because it travels in opposition to to its climax. On Titans the vocal incantations and rhythmically intricate pan-global funk patterns aren’t thus far got rid of from 90s King Red. The long, episodic finale One Step unearths them interspersing classical guitar and piano with extra standard powerplay and is any other pointer to the place they could go back and forth at some point.
Past Shadowland is on sale now by way of InsideOut Tune.
