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Reviews

Rainbow Face — Stars' Blood
(Bandcamp no#, 2020, DL)

by Jon Davis, Published 2022-05-22

Stars' Blood Cover art

In my imagination, every Norwegian city of at least moderate size is home to at least half a dozen good progessive rock bands (and probably a few dozen more decent bands that play psychedelic rock, space rock, or prog metal). Who knows, maybe it’s true of the US as well. Anyway, in the case of Portland, Oregon, most prog listeners are aware of The Mercury Tree, but that is not where quality music ends in the town. Rainbow Face is a great example, and in some ways they remind me of bands that have come out of Norway and Sweden over the last 20 years or so. Änglagård comes to mind, though Rainbow Face has several facets to their style. Heavy riffs with prominent bass underlie lush keyboards, and the compositions go through many changes in mood through their courses. There are also elements of 90s alternative rock, with intense vocals and dramatic changes. All the tracks but one were written by Jake Rose (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Salvador Altamirano-Farrell (keyboards, occasional drums) wrote “Waves,” the longest track at over 12 minutes. Dominique Reveneau’s bass is outstanding throughout the album, with a kind of overdriven Chris Squire approach that really powers the arrangements. Several different drummers feature on various tracks, and other guests contribute sax, strings, and piano. Stars’ Blood came out in 2020, but only recently came to my attention, and I’m certainly glad I discovered it (better late than never!) and I can confidently recommend it to fans of heavy modern prog that doesn’t lean towards metal.

Filed under: New releases, 2020 releases

Related artist(s): Rainbow Face

More info
http://rainbowface.bandcamp.com/album/stars-blood

 

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