Violent Jasper is the side project of Sylvan musicians Volker Sohl (keyboards, piano) and Johnny Beck (guitars and bass guitar), featuring guests Caroline von Brunken (vocals), Marco Gluhmann (vocals), Jens Lueck (drums), Katja Flintsch (violin) and Otfried Beck (Oboe). Control is a sort of concept album dealing with the complexity of human emotions and this rather dark and mysterious album starts with the title track and it is a hymn-like song featuring violin and oboe, emotional vocals, and a weird heavy guitar riff. Follow up Breathe, the longest track of this album, is an epic ballad filled with lots of piano passages and in my humble opinion too much dramatic vocals, making this song extremely sombre. Promise is also a dark song, while Masquerade is a modern art rock song with lots of classical elements and for me this is the best song of the album as the rest of Control sounds too much alike. The music of Violent Jasper is hard to describe or define and their debut album is rather “depressing” and not really an album that will bring you in a good mood, but fans of Sylvan might perhaps like this album.... **+ Martien Koolen (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
