Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
For a concept album to exist, let alone grab you and take you on seismic journey which transgresses time and the human experience, it must have insight, it should make the listener believe in the event, the longing, perhaps the sense of hopelessness and rage that is examined in others that have paved the way, and above all, it has no choice but to be truthful to the universal suffering it is examining.
The downfall of any concept recording, is that if taken out context, if a song is played without its surroundings, then it can be at times rendered meaningless; too few albums have managed to convey the meaning of the album in such a way, Pink Floyd with Another Brick In The Wall for example manages to communicate the absence and alienation in its lead and only single, Queensryche were more than masters of the art as they proved elegantly in the release of several tracks that stood alone and proudly together in the 1988 almost cinematic and epic release of Operation Mindcrime.
It is a downfall avoided by Electromicon as they persuade and convince the listener with fire in their stomachs that The Age Of Lies is an album that harks back to the classic era of Heavy Metal, and one that finds any number of the songs that flow through the album could easily stand alone as a single, and yet retain the properties and the narrative of the album.
Diego Valdez, Diego Rodriguez, Alex Emerson, Owen Bryant and Mauro Tranzaciones bring The Age Of Lies to the listener with dedication, a pressure released of the expectancy when five separate musicians come together to create what they hope will be a lasting legacy, an embracing of the classic sound, but one very much delivered with a new and vibrant audience to mind.
Across tracks such as the riveting I’m Still A Rebel, Welcome To My Life, the voiceless fury of Tempest, Emeral Forest, Song Of Hate and Venom, the concept behind the music becomes clear, engaging, it seeks to inform of the peace found at the end of a roller coaster, and one that makes respectable use of the atmosphere that reflects the mood of the protagonists at the heart of the aural tale.
Electronomicon have moved on a step from their previous recording of Unleashing The Shadows, the bar has been raised, and it is to the listener that reaps the rewards of the groups hard work and persistence. A thoroughly positive reminder of the sound that created the genre but with the twist of modern accessibility that makes The Age Of Lies a cool and deserving listen.
Ian D. Hall