Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

It is our own perceptions that shape the world as we see it, not the start to some far flung science fiction novel in which reality is a fluid state and one controlled by dark forces, but the everyday in which one person’s view of a situation can be drastically or even subtly different to another’s; in that moment perception can be altered and it is a state of emotional attachment that can shape adoration or fear of the unknown.

You don’t need to be an intellectual to know when a band have produced a great album, you only have to use the gift of listening, to soak yourself fully in the waters of perceptive reasoning, to know that if it moves you, if it makes you feel emotion and a type of serenity then the deal struck between you and the band is one that has been mutually agreed upon and the magic and the mysticism is ready to rock.

For Sacramento band Sages and their album Sleepwalker, the reality of their situation is they have offered an album which demands attention, this is no set of songs with wimpy, un-flexed dreams, this is an album of rawness, of bubbling lava being ejected high into the sky, the fire almost reigniting the sun as it hurtles into the space between the mind’s eye and the taste of glory that is surely to come for any that catch the group live in the next few years.

There is no sleep to be had, not for those who wish to live in the realm of the concept album, one that always leaves an intriguing tale to be found and in that Sages do not disappoint, in tracks such as With You, Save Yourself, Wasting Away, Face the World and Up To The Sky, the feel of energy pushing at the boundaries is one that is both unsettling and rich in its grandeur. Life prevails, life, if we let it let it in, if we feel the surge of the world and not let the negative define us then Sleepwalker is such as an introduction to good times ahead; nobody needs to be a mystic to understand that good music can be a healer as well as one restoring magic between the ears.

Ian D. Hall