Orion, the amazing musical project of Ben Jones, has release a new album called Into Darkness, featuring seven brand new tracks with Ben Jones playing all the instruments. Last year Orion released The Lightbringers (2024, see review), a concept album and I ended my review of that album like this: "The Lightbringers is a must for Rush fans and prog rock fans, so die or buy this album and play it loud. I am already addicted, and I cannot get enough of this album!" So, the first question about this new album was: is it as good as its predecessor? After a couple of spins, I can honestly say that Into Darkness is much heavier and more kinetic than Jones's past work. Opening track, A Father's Love is a real rocker indeed with lots of groove and heavy riffs, featuring musical shades of bands like Rush and Haken, while Ordinary Men is a brooding, darker song. Left Behind is again a track packed with glorious riffs and extensive musical twists and turns, while the instrumental follow up song The Ant is a lively, complex bass-driven track, also featuring a marvellous expressive guitar solo. The final two tracks The Antidote To Life and Bleeding Hearts form the song Into Darkness, clocking in over thirteen minutes, this song is the highlight of Into Darkness. Part 1 is prog metal played at its best, featuring again a pounding bass groove and lots of guitar solos, while part 2 is definitely more melodic and also more experimental, due to the electronic musical elements. Conclusion: Into Darkness is in my humble opinion not as good as The Lightbringers, although this new Orion album has lots of muscle and musical strength, I feel that the compositions on The Lightbringers are definitely more to my musical taste; but, as we all know, there is no account for taste, so.... **** Martien Koolen (edited by Dave Smith) Where to buy? |
