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Reviews

Fatal Fusion — Land of the Sun
(Apollon Records ARPR002, 2010/2021, CD / 2LP / DL)

Fatal Fusion — Dissonant Minds
(Apollon Records ARP033, 2020, CD / LP / DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2021-06-10

Land of the Sun Cover artDissonant Minds Cover art

The Norwegian progressive rock band Fatal Fusion released their first album back in 2010. We missed it at the time, but Apollon is reissuing it not so long after the release of the band’s fourth album, Dissonant Minds. Land of the Sun was originally released on CD, and like any good rock band with epic aspirations, they presented over an hour of music spread across eight tracks, though only two of them top the ten-minute mark. The reissue is a double-LP, and a live track is added to fill out the fourth side. Musically, the band sounds less mature than their later work, though in no way simplistic or amateurish. On some of the shorter tracks, there’s a distinct 70s hard rock flavor not far off from Steppenwolf or Edgar Winter, and not very much to move it into the progressive rock genre. It’s solid retro hard rock, mostly on the straightforward side in spite of the odd Mellotron here and there. Moving ahead to Dissonant Minds, we have a single LP with only four tracks — each side contains one longish track and one shorter song. The compositions are a lot more sophisticated now, with skillful management of tension and release providing real drama. There are no hints of the boogie style carried over from the earlier days. A listener might detect a certain flavor of Genesis in the more acoustic sections, though interestingly enough, the vocals in these places resemble Steve Winwood, whereas the heavier sections get a gritty, bluesy tone. Those heavy sections are quite well done as well, avoiding turning too far to metal, almost like early 70s Uriah Heep had indulged in more synthesizer and less organ; there are touches of Captain Beyond as well, with some great riffs and very nice use of odd meters. In short, I would recommend Dissonant Minds to any fan of progressive rock, whereas Land of the Sun is mainly for those who can’t get enough old-school hard rock.

Filed under: New releases, Reissues, 2021 releases, 2010 recordings, 2020 releases

Related artist(s): Fatal Fusion

More info
http://fatalfusion1.bandcamp.com

 

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