Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Progressive Rock isn’t quite the same without a band releasing two great and phenomenal albums within a year of each other, Queen, when they were Prog managed it, Genesis revelled in it and now Kingbathmat show exactly why critics and the public loved them when they released Truth Button and now, just a few short months on they have come back with astounding Overcoming The Monster.
You might think that after six albums there might be time to reflect, rest and think of glories won but for Kingbathmat’s John Bassett, David Georgiou, Rob Watts and Bernie Smirnoff, music is a pressing concern, how to make an album have the feel of the outlandish Pink Floyd at the ceremonial pomp and place it in a blender at maximum speed with the harmonious fluidity of E.L.P., whatever the process, it has worked before in the past and doesn’t shy away from positively brimming with brilliance on the band’s seventh album Overcoming The Monster.
There really isn’t a lot you can do in 50 minutes, more than likely it would be mundane and uninspiring but let the laser guide through tracks such a Parasomnia, Superfluous and the excellent and extensive Kubrick Moon, let the imagination flow and get a grip of the mind and what you are left with is 50 minutes of sheer and unadulterated sublime music. As must have’s go, this is pretty close to booking itself a holiday on the Orient Express with full dinner privileges added in and no need to show the passport on the entire journey. A classic in the making!
The mind can be the biggest monster of them all; the human brain capable of so much with its scope of imagination and desire and yet the obstacles we put in its way, the fear of failure, the apprehension at the merest glimpse of our own nightmares all combine to make us question our validity and purpose.
Overcoming The Monster is no mean feat but it can be done, it needs to be overwhelmed and rendered speechless. KingBathmat have shown listeners the way, turn up the music as loud as it will go and let the band take you beyond the so called doomsayers who always proclaim that Progressive Rock cannot solve a problem or two…They are wrong.
Overcoming The Monster is released by Stereohead Records on July 22nd 2013.
Ian D. Hall