Detailed Review [Captain T - 2000 - "Sinister Ambassador"]

Line-up: Captain T (Mark Strigl) - guitars, vocals, some keyboards; Matt Pichel - bass; Chris Heaton - drums. With: John Ostrosky (tracks 1 & 4 only) and Panger X (tracks 1 & 4 only)

Do I love Black Sabbath? Yes I do. Do I consider them the Godfathers of Prog-Metal, the best yet the most underrated band of this genre? Yes I do. Do I consider their earliest period of 1970-1972 as the first manifestation of Progressive Doom-Metal? Yes I do. Captain T has obviously the same attitude to what I just said above and it becomes clear already after the first listen to his debut CD "Sinister Ambassador" (please don't forget to read the detailed review on Captain's demo mini-CD here. Strong and hypnotic guitar riffs, often long, diverse and at the same time really brooding guitar solos, vocals ranging from slow and melancholic to dramatic and screeching - stylistically all these details immediately remind the "Volume 4" album of Black Sabbath. But, if Captain T really loves Black Sabbath it doesn't mean at all that his music is either a brilliant clone or some (good, bad, etc) imitation of the Prog-Metal Heroes music model. Despite the fact that "Sinister Ambassador" at least in all the heavy parts is highly influenced by early Black Sabbath, all the aforementioned guitar riffs and solos and vocals don't sound at all as if they were played by Iommi and sung by Ozzy. Captain T's method of playing and singing (yes, the bandleader undertakes both the roles of guitarist and singer) is all his own anyway. What's more, Captain T are not simply good followers of Black Sabbath - they are wonderful followers of them. As there are lots of other compositional aspects in the music of The Captain T Band and all these are creations of their own. At least all the long compositions (track 6 is instrumental) represents a unique mixture of Metal and Spacey Progressive with elements of psychedelics and bits of blues. It is really interesting to watch how skillfully these guys can change the main musical themes. They plunge from powerful heavy "battles" (with hypnotic riffing!) into a totally polar atmosphere of "spacey" prostration with some kind of abstract yet harmonic thoughts - as if the soul of a warrior slain just moments ago and meditating on something marvelous. Hey you, poor imitators of Titans, wretched Marillion wannabees GLD and the likes, look here: this is an excellent exemplar for all the true followers! And you, capital fans of glorious Black Sabbath: miss them (and their true sound)? Then get this one at any price!