My Soliloquy - The Interperter

My Soliloquy

The Interperter

by YngwieViking at 11 February 2013, 6:59 PM

MY SOLILOQUY from Latin locution “talking by oneself”: Indeed, what an eccentric name, but not as strange as the musical adventurous mix that leads to such brilliant album, a marvelous start for this one man project (that hopefully will morph little by little into a real band with of course, less legitimacy for the appellation) formed in 2002 by vocalist, Multi-instrumentalist / Mastermind Pete Morten that has been an active member of British Metal Icons THRESHOLD since 2007, with some particularly well quoted vocals and a few remarkable guitarist inputs on their last contemporary Progressive work: “March Of Progress”. After he recorded many working demos, and three EPs “The Creative Principle”, “Lateral Thinking” and “Esoterica” which created anticipation in the Prog-Metal Underground microcosm. The great success encountered by THRESHOLD, his new membership, then his official integration and his growing reputation as a guitar player, has finally raised a lot excitation and expectations for this long awaited and eponym debut album under the moniker MY SOLILOQUY.

This record is devoted between Dark Neo-Prog and Elegant Progressive Metal with tons of layers, lots of textures and a vast spectrum of influences, rhythms and flavors exported from potentially every corner of the musical galaxy, with everything: from hyper complex twisted structures full of asymmetrical licks, to basic hypnotic electronic beat, from ultra-powerful lyrical Dickinsonian vocalizations, to somber Ambient plage…”Corrosive De-Emphasis” ,”Fractured” and the versatile “Inner Circles” are very representative of this stylistic ambivalence… With such descriptive words, the global feeling out of this disc could have been perceived as pretty awkward and untimely, which in fact is not the case, because as much complicated and as tricky are the compositions, the music is not outlandish or hermetic but still firmly down to earth with always a real focus on melodic hooks genuinely English in its refinement, the whole album runs flawlessly with only one wish at the end of it: push the repeat button again.

The extremely clean production is perfect for this kind of unbelievable perplexing songs, with maybe only one qualitative objection concerning the intriguing track n°2 “Flash Point”, where the lead voice track, is a little disconnected, it sounds a bit restrained and not merged enough with the background, a fatter more massive sound should have been more productive, that’s maybe the only average point for the entire CD. The playing level is impressive and the high pitched vocal performances are natural, instinctive, never forced and really outstanding, you can perceive some Geddy Lee or obviously some, Damian Wilson's similarities but also at lot of Tobias Sammett’s inflexion analogies…

This totally pure & artistic collection of splendid tunes, are destined to be praised by the cerebral music lovers, however also very recommended to those who loves their Progressive Metal melted with sheer talent, for a modern hybrid alloy, very near of an timeless alchemistic secret recipe.