Odd Palace - 'Things To Place On The Moon' Album Review

Tracklist:

2. Chemical Solution

3. Liar's Attire

4. Through Your Eyes

5. Things To Place On The Moon

6. Delirious

7. Insomnia

8. The Alchemist

9. Counterpart

10. Dead End

I've sat and listened to this album several times in an effort to get this review going, the problem I've had is knowing where to start as there's a fair amount to take in. The band have created an almost by the numbers Prog epic, flowing through various movements the music here is catchy, but by no means straightforward, much complexity gives it depth and a wonderful re-listenable quality.

There is wonderful variation in tone throughout "Things To Place On The Moon" but the band do have a style and a sound, musically it comes within a hairs width of something much heavier but there is little of the vocal growling and howling of some of the more modern Hard Rock and Metal acts here, so it's a lot more palatable than some of the more screamy bands out there "doing Prog".

This is (as ever) my first encounter with this band so I knew nothing of their history when the review landed in my inbox, this is not unusual to anyone who has read my previous reviews, unless they were a mainstream band I know nothing of any of the acts I review until I begin to listen (and google the band name to appear knowledgeable, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!). This time there's not a lot to find other than their Facebook page, their YouTube account and their presence on Spotify (a slight shame as I do like a good back-story), so I know next to nothing about Odd Palace but that does not diminish my appreciation of this album.

I'm very happy to listen to music like this and recommend it to anyone curious, Odd Palace's material is very accessible as Prog music goes (no bad thing) but as I mentioned it is challenging you, if you dig deeper you will enjoy it even more and realise the accessibility is a clever smokescreen created by inventive musicians who, on the strength of this release, sound like they really love what they're doing.