Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7/10

There are very few things in life that are better than a detective story. The thrill of going down avenues and drawing your conclusions from the clues presented to you and whilst the likes of Poirot, Wallander or Morse are missing, the best kind of detective is on hand, the listener, who is privy to every detail in the latest album by Mater Thallium, Abandoned By The Sun.

Perhaps the only thing better than a detective story is finding one that is embroiled into the two stunning cultures, Progressive and Concept. This ideal, the twin combinations that is on many levels a joy to experience, rarely letting down the listener’s pre-conceptions or their exhausted but spirit soaring remains has for one reason or another never really been explored much outside of the world of Progressive or indeed the Metal genre, this can only be other musical forms loss.

The concept album is one to delve into, to immerse inside and out as if finding a lost civilisation in the deep and darkest parts of Peru, armed only with hope, a thirst for knowledge and understanding and a startled and inquisitive guide. For Scandinavia’s Mater Thallium, the search for knowledge and understanding is two-fold. Not only in looking down the barrel of the loaded concept album but in the quest of telling the story of the disappearance of a young 15 year old girl and the ever increasing undulation, the cause and effect and horror of the darkness in which answers lay.

In parts brutal, unashamed and direct, in others, coy, blossoming with expectation and in parts overwhelming melody, Erik Andås on bass, Håkon Markussen on keyboards, Geir Venom Larzen on guitars and drums, Petter Falk on lead vocals and the beauty of Mette Jensen’s flute and vocals combine to dmake Abandoned By The Sun stimulating, thoughtful and considerate without wandering down the road towards mawkish self-pity.

Whilst it takes a while to get into the thought process that makes the album so intriguing, tracks such as Exiled Witness, Maternal Mortality, Fear Of Water and the open ended questioning of Finite give the listener a huge taste of what’s to come in the future, the sweeping, powerful lyrics accompanied by the type of music that makes the thought of the fading and unheard heart become lost in the cacophony of devastating and irresistible vestiges of hope is one in which to play with.

The best stories are those where your own conclusions are met, for Mater Thallium it is a great place to start.

Mater Thallium’s Abandoned By The Sun is available to purchase from Autumn Song Records.

Ian D. Hall