Karmakanic - Enter the spectra

The Little Man (1:29)
Entering The Spectra (12:20)
The Spirit Remains The Same (6:01)
Cyberdust From Mars (3:34)
Space Race No:3 (4;36)
The Man In The Moon Cries / One Whole Half (5:17)
Is This The End? (7:12)
Cello Suite No:1 In G Major (1:02)
Welcome To Paradise (9:19)

Man of many projects, and currently occupying the bass chair in The Flower Kings, Jonas Reingold’s latest outing is the concept album Entering The Spectra under the group name Karmakanic. Like Tomas Bodin’s latest album Pinup Guru, the name takes its inspiration from the lyrics to Selling England by the Pound by Genesis, though their actual word is “karmamechanic”, but we get the general idea. Whilst some of his other projects, such as Reingold and Opus Atlantica are more in a metal vein, this one stays fairly close in style to The Flower Kings, which is not surprising as his colleagues Stolt, Bodin, Csorsz and Salazar are all present here. The team is completed by Robert Engstrand on keyboards, Johan Glossner on guitars and, notably, on vocals Goran Edman of Yngvie Malmsteen fame.

The short opening track is a spoken word set up for the concept of the album, which is a futuristic tale of a man who lives out his fantasies in cyberspace.

The seven – part Entering The Spectra is a full–on Flower Kings style epic, complete with Roine Stolt on lead vocals. There are several changes of pace and style within this number, including a long jazzy noodling section, with excellent bass from Jonas. The tension is continually built and released throughout in a most satisfying fashion. A bone crunching riff and soulful vocals opens The Spirit Remains The Same, where not only the title, is redolent of Led Zeppelin at their most exotic. Though there is plenty of progressive development, this is heavier than most of The Flower King's material. This is a superbly constructed song with spiralling keyboards, more great bass and a stylistically varied and compelling vocal performance from Goran Edman, which is a revelation. This is one of my favourite songs on the album.

Cyberdust.. and Space Race are both pitched somewhere between the styles found on Areyon’s Electric Castle and Space Metal releases, being futuristic, melodic, metallic prog rock. The latter track also has a somewhat King’s X like feel, though with mellotron samples and more keyboard flourishes.

The Man In The Moon Cries is an anti pollution tirade, played out within a melodic hard rock structure – a little less adventurous than the other songs, but successful nevertheless. In contrast, One Whole Half is another smoking jazz fusion romp, in which Jonas really excels, recalling The Mahavishnu Orchestra or, more recently, Liquid Tension Experiment. This is another high spot on a consistently good CD.

Is This The End is another long track in three distinct segments. It begins with a piano ballad, sung with feeling by Goran. The second part is an instrumental consisting of orchestral sounds, vocal samples and the fake crackles of a vinyl record (an increasingly common gimmick which I find a bit pointless). The concluding section is a mid tempo rocker with soaring lead guitar and a good keyboard solo. Track 9 is a short bass solo playing a classical melody, nicely done but it seems to break up the conceptual flow of the disc.

Welcome to Paradise is a pleasing conclusion to the album, throwing many disparate elements together in an aural melting pot of epic proportions. Amongst other things, there is a brief burst of keyboards that reminds me of Rick Van Der Linden (Ekseption, Trace) which adds to the enjoyment. The lyrics bring the story to its end with a verbal duel between Goran and Jonas as “the Cybervirus”.

All in all this is a great disc and a must have for all Flower Kings fans.