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Noekk is a progressive rock band consisting of former Empyrium members. The lengthened shadow of the folk act is perceived along the tracks of this release, sometimes in a subtle manner, others directly in the accoustic guitar passages. Thousand influences have been put into the Noekk cauldron, being King Crimson or Landberk prominent references quoted when depicting the band´s sound, so you can figure out where are the things going to. Despite their style is firmly rooted in classic prog rock, the overall effect turns out to be slightly innovative and fresh due to loose elements such as the solemn operistic vocals courtesy of Helm -conveniently re-baptised as Funghus Baldachin (!) for this musical outfit- or the strong edge of the guitar chords, both becoming foundations of Noekk´s sound after this their second full-length. Another highlight are the nice keyboard lines mainly performed under the Hammond tune although mellotron and moog also take place. The strong 70´s aroma is present in almost every second of the album. From the album structure, only three long songs, to the sound itself, it´s easy to grasp these guys have heard the call of the old times and have chosen the retro path instead of other avantgarde stances and intentions. And retro doesn´t necessarily mean cheerful harmonies; this duo performs hazy and tragic music distant from happy-scrappy tunes. Being lengthy, the songs are endowed with plenty of tempo changes, though here I must point these changes are sometimes managed the easiest way, namely sudden stops, something that diminishes the flowing of the songs in a certain way. This means a demanding listener could rant on this gimmick. However that´s just a minor threat to the quality of the album which I reckon as high. Again, we have had Lukasz Jaszak as responsible of the cover art and Markus Stock at the recording duties so those are great news to the marriage between music and visual / technical work. In three 4 letters-long words: “The Grimalkin” is dark, prog and nice. That´s all I had to say.
| Tracklist |
| 1. The Albatross |
| 2. The Grimalkin |
| 3. Codex Deserta |
: 41.34
| Buy other Noekk albums |
