INTERVALS- 'The Way Forward' Album Review

Tracklist:

1. Touch And Go

2. Impulsively Responsible

3. A Different Light

4. By Far And Away

5. Belvedere

6. Rubicon Artist

7. The Waterfront

8. Leave No Stone

An instrumental album, all music, no lyrics, that's probably going to divide opinion straight away, if it freaks you out, don't worry this may still be worth looking at. There is a strong melodicism in Intervals' work the melody shifting between guitar, keyboards and harmonies of both. Intervals is not a band per-se, the music is predominantly written by Aaron Marshall although former Protest The Hero bassist Cameron McLellan has returned here playing bass and engineering, also earning a co-writing credit for 'Rubicon Artist'.

I won't say that this is the most varied collection of instrumentals I've heard, there are a lot of things that every song seems to share, but the playing is particularly clever and the compositions feel well worked out. I struggled for a long time with a feeling of familiarity the music gave me, and while I couldn't ever shake it, nor could I say the music sounds like anything I could recall by name. Perhaps it's the fact that the music is predominantly guitar led and as a guitarist I spent a number of years hearing "really clever" "must hear" instrumental guitar music from the likes of Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and so forth?

Having taken a look backwards (I try not to do that, I like to look at a release on its own merits, but this time I did) this is another step lighter and less intense for Intervals, not tame or bland by any account but not quite as full on as the band once was. So, for the most part not as heavy as in the band's formative years, incredible instrumental performances, melodic hooks, there's a lot on offer here and it's well executed, well produced and difficult to find fault. But it's not for me, I'm not going to be nasty because what it is, is done well, but I'm probably not going to revisit it regularly in future. I like instrumentals in the context of a bigger whole that includes songs with lyrics, whole instrumental albums (other than Jazz, or some ambient or classical stuff) don't always quite grab me the same way. So power to these guys they're good at what they do and well worth checking out, but that's about all I can say there was no real eureka moment for me listening to this album.