Detailed Reviews [Flaming Row - 2019 - "The Pure Shine"]

Prolusion. German band Flaming Row has been around in some form or other since 2008, and have released new albums every few years following their debut album "Elinoire" back in 2011. "The Pure Shine" is their third and most recent studio production, and was released through German label Progressive Promotion Records in 2019.

Analysis. Flaming Row started out as more of a progressive metal oriented band, and while aspects of that form remains also on their third album, and to the point where this genre arguably remains the most appropriate one to file the album under, this creation is in fact something else entirely. This is a rock opera first and foremost, and one that possibly was developed with a theatrical stage performance in mind at that. We do get many staples from the progressive rock and progressive metal universe that are included on this album. The majority of the compositions are long, we get liberal amounts of alterations in pace, intensity and overall arrangements, and some quirky, technical details have been included too. So there's plenty to enjoy outside of the rock opera scope of matters too, this isn't an album exclusively made for a rock opera crowd. That being said, one can't deny the rock opera presence throughout either. A good handful of orientations are present in just about all of the songs here, and some manner of orchestral backing is a recurring element in most of the variations we are provided with here. Executed and performed in what I feel is a distinctly stage performance friendly manner. Long sequences with acoustic and folk music being the dominant form is something of a staple here too, with the singer/songwriter traditions brought in for both the acoustic rock and folk music passages and of course with excellent vocals and vocal harmonies where the main creators Mau and Schnella lead the way in that department, closely followed by the rest of the cast. Most of the songs will at some point segue over to some variety of progressive rock along the way, ranging from a more relaxed variety of careful progressive rock and through to a more bombastic take on hard progressive rock, but also with sequences that have a bit more of a dark and unnerving, understated vibe to them befitting an album that explore Stephen King's novel "The Dark Tower". That the parts where the songs step into more of a progressive metal orientation tends to be both dark and dramatic probably isn't all that surprising, given the general context. One element that is a bit more difficult to properly describe in words is how elegant all of this is executed, and it is the elegance more than anything else that gives me the impression that this rock opera may possibly have been developed with a theatrical stage performance in mind. The music, the melodies and the vocal roles all come with this as a built in element in my opinion. For those who prefer to enjoy music without vocals, the physical edition of this production also comes with the instrumental version of the album on a separate CD. While I personally don't find that addition all that enriching myself, for those who treasure their music in instrumental guise that will obviously be a nice bonus feature in this case.

Conclusion. "The Pure Shine" is a really well developed and suitably complex rock opera, in the very best meaning of that description. The compositions are epic in length, stature and variation, the arrangements have that balance of being gentle and beckoning as well as bombastic and dramatic, and some of the vocal elements are truly brilliant in arrangement as well as execution. While this is possibly an album that still manages to fall within a progressive metal categorization, at heart this is a rock opera and one that has the qualities needed for a theatrical performance too. If you tend to enjoy well developed and high quality rock opera productions, this is an album you need to inspect at some point.

Progmessor: January 2023
The Rating Room