Short Reviews [Aries Field - 2023 - "Capsizing The Horizon"]

When one of my favourite things about this album is the inverted cover photography to tie in with the title, then one may safely assume this is not something I am massively impressed with. Although this project was initially brought together by three musicians, Fabio Stroppa, Francesco Barnab, and Davide Valentini, only Stroppa has continued with it, and now we have the third album, ‘Capsizing the Horizon’. Apart from two songs which feature guitar solos by Alessio Rispoli, this is solely the work of Stroppa, and it shows. He is a fine shred-driven guitarist, but this suffers from a lack of outside viewpoints, and while he is a decent singer much would be added by having a proper vocalist. Apparently, this is a concept album about the deluded desire to do something impossible like changing the past -- allegorically, capsize the horizon, narrated through different phases of a dream, from angry and regretful memories to pure nightmare, to eventually waking up to reality with themes that touch delusion, obsession, and suicide. I have actually played this album far more than I normally would to write a review, primarily as it has been marketed as a prog metal album for fans of Mastodon, Trivium and Machine Head. I am a huge fan of these three bands which is why I decided to listen to this in the first place, but there is little in common with this which comes across more as an alt metal release with some shred elements but little prog metal. It is not a really bad album, and the production is strong, but it is not something to which I will be quickly returning.