Musicellaneous ‣ Zierler

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It’s Friday! This twenty-second edition of Musicellaneous presents a progressive metal opera by Zierler, a project by the Dane Finn Zierler.

Like Dan Swanö, who I mentioned before, Zierler is rightfully seen as one of the prog scene patriarchs. He is mostly known as a founder and a keyboardist in the Danish band Beyond Twilight, which he started at the age of 20 back in 1992.

Beyond Twilight was disbanded in 2008 and four years later Finn Zierler founded his solo project, which is much lesser known. So let’s talk about it.

Music

For this new project Zierler invited two singers: Kelly Sundown Carpenter from his former band and the Norwegian Truls Haugen from Circus Maximus (curiously enough, he doesn’t sing there). Sundown Carpenter is also known for his vocals in Adagio, which Zierler reminds a lot, both by its music and its vocals.

So far Zierler managed to only release a single album called Esc (2005). Yet this only work proved to be epic: it’s a full-blown progressive metal opera.

When listening to the album you immediately notice the intricate arrangements and the complicated rhythmical and melodical structure of the music, as well as the technical proficiency of the musicians.

Here’s, for instance, Bobby Jarzombek drumming in Aggrezzor:

And this is a solo spot by Per Nilsson in the same track:

All in all, the band’s debut is fascinating and many-faceted. Apart from the above-mentioned Adagio, it also reminds me of such progressive legends as Ayreon and Symphony X.

The only thing I didn’t really appreciate in Esc was lots of growling vocals. But okay, that’s the way the authors saw it.