Album Review - Sieges Even - The Art Of Navigating By The Stars

After an 8 year hiatus Sieges Even are back with a new album. I remember being pretty devastated when I spoke to drummer Alex Holzwarth after a Rhapsody concert in Denmark in 1999 where he told me that Sieges Even had broken up. Fortunately it seems that they were just on a long break and have now decided to band together again. After going through various name changes and demos with Looking-Glass-Self and Val'Paraiso they have returned as Sieges Even. That was a good choice since this album carries on the legacy without stumbling.

This is nothing like the two latest Sieges Even albums, Sophisticated and Uneven. The band has been reborn so to say and have returned to making music, which is closer to the style found on "A Sense of Change" and "Steps", in the sense that the music is more relaxed than fx. Sophisticated. The pre-Sophisticated lineup is back with the Holzwarth brothers Alex & Oliver handling drums and bass respectively and Markus Steffen on guitar. Dutch singer Arno Menses is the new addition and a perfect fit for the band.

I've always adored Sieges Even, partly because they were so different from everything else, and though my favorite period of the band came with Sophisticated, each of their albums have been unique and worth investing a lot of time in. "The Art Of Navigating By The Stars" is no different.

If you haven't heard Sieges Even before the you're probably wondering what the music sounds like. For the genre fixated this would be your special kind of Progressive Rock. The music is relatively relaxed and focused on the melodies. Guitar, bass, drums and vocals make up the soundscape. The songs are intricately woven together, very complicated and it takes some time to find the focus points of each song. It should be said that the album is in fact one long song split into 8 different sequences to get a better overview. Many segments pop up several times through the album with small changes each time.

Navigating through this album is like a journey into a musical universe so vast that you are bound to find a different path through it with each listen. That will be either a godsend or a frustrating experience depending on how you like your music. The album demands patience and challenges you to sit down and really listen intensely and with interest to get the most from the music.

A trademark of the older Sieges Even albums was that you could listen to them countless times (several hundred) and still find small creative touches, which you hadn't noticed before. I'm pretty sure the same goes for this one even though I'm just past the first thirty listens. Not really enough fro me to make a final judgement of this album, so call this review a reflection of my state of mind at this moment in time.

Arno Menses is the new singer and he simply blows the older Sieges Even vocalists out of the water. His voice is very clear, but has a warmth and softness that fits the music very well. His vocal melodies are impressive and he manages to add his own touch to the album.

Markus Steffen's guitar sound is sparklingly clean and he uses the clear guitar notes to create piercing moments of melodic goodness. The production is amazing with the bass being right up front and as usual the drum sound is mouth watering. It is possible to focus on just one instrument and be entertained through the whole album. Creative and impressive musicians all around.

If there was one thing that tied all the Sieges Even albums together it would have to be their extremely melancholic atmosphere. Listening to their albums I always feel like the air is suddenly filled with a clenching melancholic fog that kind of hangs over your head and slowly seeps under your skin while listening to the album. I felt that same familiar feeling creeping up while listening to this one. Beautifully melancholic is what the atmosphere is.

It is hard to pull forward specific songs since they should be experienced as one. The album opens on a pretty sophisticated note with a 10 minute challening opus which leaves you dazed the first few times. From then on the music takes you through incredibly melancholic guitar playing (The Lonely Views Of Condors), haunting lyrical moments and briliant bass and guitar interplay (Unbreakable), a more melodic and catchy path (Stigmata), sedative acoustic passages that caress your ears with their softness (Blue Wide Open), darker and more introverted moments (To The Ones Who Have Failed), feelings of openness and adventure that have rarely been captured so well (Lighthouse) and in the end the album comes full cicle (Styx). Breathtaking and original are words that come to mind often during this one hour Sieges Even experience.

To say it took a few listens before this album opened up would be the understatement of the year. I still have to be in a particular mood to really enjoy the music fully. The reason that I still rate it so highly is that when I'm in that mood then this is simply an album that feels perfect. As you can probably tell I am in the mood right now while writing this review. I must also admit that when I'm not in the mood I get frustrated and quickly put on some simpler music before I fall asleep.

I remember writing about last month's album of the month (To/Die/For - IV) that it was easily digested but not easily forgotten. To continue that trend, I would say about this album that it is an aquired taste for sure, but if you like the taste then this meal could last a whole lifetime.

In a year I may see "The Art Of Navigating By The Stars" as a masterpiece or I may not. At this point it is simply an outstanding and unique album. Melancholic and infinitely sad at times, adventurous and hopeful at others. This is Sieges Even and they have created an album of the type that doesn't come along very often.

Written by Steen
Wednesday, October 5, 2005
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Ratings

Steen: 8/10

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