Destroy all monsters --- Dec Burke --- 2010 (Progrock)
I've seen this album around and often wondered what it was like. Unaccountably, I've always got Dec Burke mixed up with Devin Townsend, even though the only connection between them I can see is that both are male and solo, and their names begin with D. And they work in broadly the same genre. Yeah. I get confused easily. You do, at my age. But though I've only experienced Townsend through his (frankly awful) rendition of “New York, New York” on the metal “tribute” album “Sin-atra” (previously reviewed by yours truly), I've never heard anything from Burke. So who is he?
Well, it seems he's part of Frost*, and also with another progressive rock band called Darwin Radio, but branched out on his own in 2010 and has so far released two albums in that period, of which this is the debut offering. On the strength of this, I have to say I think it was a smart move and should yield the rewards that follow making such a decision. The word solo really describes this album also, as he does vocals, guitars and keyboards himself, only pulling in, er, two bass players and a drummer to help him out, with another keyboard man guesting on some tracks. Like many of the albums I choose to review, information on this is sketchy, but I'm going to go out on a limb and guess he writes all the songs on this himself.
The album opens on “The last time”, which begins with what could be taken as new-wave/electronica keys, but soon kicks into life on the back of storming guitar and powerful keys, the latter of which then drop right back to a quiet piano line as Dec's voice comes in, and it's clear that he has a powerful one, which can also be taken right down when the song, or part of the song, requires. There's a lot of catchy melody in the song, and while the production on the album may not be as pin-sharp as you might usually expect from a prog rock record, it's certainly not muddy. I just think sometimes his voice can get a little swamped, though it doesn't happen that often. The acoustic piano line works well as it weaves its way through the song, getting a little darker as it goes on, with some pretty chunky bass too.
Interestingly for a prog rock album, there are no mega-compositions, no three or four-movement epics, in fact nothing over seven minutes. Well, okay, the title goes two seconds over that, but it's the only one. Most of the rest hit in around the three/five minute mark. Now in some ways that could be regarded as bad value for money, as the album only consists of nine tracks in all, bringing the running time in at a total of a few seconds under forty-five minutes. Against that though is the fact that there really are no weak tracks, and some very strong ones. “Winter to summer” is a big heavy puncher, slower than the opener and with a real sense of loss and desperation in the lyric and indeed the melody. It's quite guitar driven, and a chance for Burke to show off his skills in this area. There's also a really nice recurring piano line running alongside the harder guitar.
“Signs of life”, on the other hand, runs in on the back of a sparkly keyboard line, then more hard guitar kicks in in a very dramatic way, with a sense of Steven Wilson in the vocal, while “Sometimes” comes across as the heaviest of the tracks, with a snarling guitar and urgent, passionate keywork, and a great slide guitar outro, then “Secret lives” (three songs following each other all beginning with “s”: trivia alert!) is also quite heavy and relies on some pretty frenetic drumming from Tim Churchman, Dec's voice rising above the dramatic keyboards and chugging guitar, the whole thing reminding me of an old steam locomotive charging along the tracks, the unstoppable iron horse in its native habitat.
Everything then slows down for “Open”, a really nice acoustic guitar ballad in which Burke's voice is tortured and gravelly, again reminding me a little of Wilson, but without sounding too much like the Porcupine Tree maestro. Another slow one then in “Promised”, with some really warbly prog-style keys and a great little guitar solo: could be standout of the album really, with Burke really tapping his inner Waters and turning out a real Floydesque tune. More commercial is “Small hours” (that now makes four songs on this album that begin with “s”: half of the tracks! Wonder if that's a record?) with some very decent backing vocals and a rolling guitar line and what sounds like it could be some strings accompaniment, though it may be just Dec on the keys. Brilliant guitar solo at the end.
And the title track closes out the album. It's certainly been worth waiting for; as I mentioned at the beginning, it's the longest track on the album, just two seconds over seven minutes, and it starts out with a one-minute instrumental that then segues into the main melody behind Dec's vocal, then the song gets going with a dramatic, mid-paced and powerful mini-epic that ends on a very sharp little piano melody, bringing the album to a rather satisfying finale.
First impressions, they say, last, and you only get one chance to make that impression, but I've found this to be inaccurate when related to this particular album. The first time I listened to it I was really impressed, but on subsequent listens I've moderated my opinion somewhat, and although I still like it, I'm not as blown away with it as I seemed to be initially. It's got a lot of good things going for it, yes, but there's nothing that's all that terribly different. I admit I find the lack of an epic --- even an instrumental one --- on an album with only nine tracks a little disappointing: I feel sort of shortchanged somehow. The songs though, are all good, the instrumentation's great and it's enjoyable to listen to. It's just that I can think of at least a dozen other albums I would probably prefer to listen to before this.
Of course, conversely, I would listen to this before a whole lot of other albums I have. A good album, but not a great album. Perhaps his second one is better?
TRACKLISTING
1. The last time
2. Winter to summer
3. Signs of life
4. Sometimes
5. Secret lives
6. Promised
7. Open
8. Small hours
9. Destroy all monsters