Album Review: "Apex III (Praise For The Burning Soul) by Mars Red Sky

Apex III (Praise For The Burning Soul)

Thank you for reading all about new music here at Glacially Musical.

This blog was started as a way to communicate to the world that music didn't stop getting recorded when Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd broke up.

Many complaints of the current group of elder gaseous emissions, i.e. my personal age group, state things such that they have heard everything before.

Well, of course you've heard everything before. There are only so many notes and so many keys. Every single one of them has been used, but  here's a cracker of a fact that may have escaped the aging Gen X'ers. Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Kiss, The Rolling Stones, and any other band you can name, not only played notes that other people played, but drew inspiration from other artists!

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, the big acts of classic rock borrowed licks and chord progressions from their forebears too.

Mars Red Sky

In an era in which music is so rigidly categorized, it's hard not to take snippets of other genre songs and albums without sounding a bit derivative.

That's where the giants of Classic Rock excelled. When Led Zeppelin did Robert Johnson, they sure as hell didn't sound like Robert Johnson.

When Kiss stole from the Stones, they sounded like Kiss.

Today there is a greater palette of colors from which to draw and Mars Red Sky paints the sky with more than just red.

This album feels very Floydian in scope and structure.

The vocals sound like Ghost, but with a choral aspect.

The guitars are fuzzy, sludgy, and lovely. It's as if the sounds of Black Sabbath, the Melvins, and perhaps the Beastie Boys became this hellish hybrid.

Coupled the wah drenched solos, it's just a beauty sound. The guitars are also tracked wonderfully. Instead of two guitars doubling, there are guitar sections. Melodic leads nestle into the overdriven rhythms creating a dynamic sound.

The songs are long, drawn out, and slow. The mood is dark. The melodies will take hold and stick in your brain.

Mars Red Sky has been inspired by the greats before them, but they sound like no one else. That's the key to making great art. Learn from the masters, but sound like yourself.

Release: 5/20/16
Genre: Metal
Label: Listenable Records
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