Synopsis. Although two out of the nine tracks that are featured on "Thrive" are songs: Say It Loud and Shaman (2 & 5), this album is stylistically much more uniform than "Suffer". Both of the songs and both of the boundary tracks of the album: Suffer and Console Warmer present the further development of that unique blend of Cathedral Metal and Jazz-Fusion which is one of the central hallmarks of the band's debut (and, thus, its style in general). Having written this, I've thought that the same words can be said about another central stylistic aspect of Gongzilla's music - a blend of guitar-based Art-Rock and Jazz-Fusion that all of the other compositions on "Thrive" are about. (Well, the written word remains.) Accordingly, these are Island, Image, Les Vosges, Listen to the Wind, and Image Reprise (3, 4, 6, 7, & 8). While there are some obvious stylistic similarities between "Suffer" and "Thrive", the second album is more atmospheric and has a rather mysterious feel to it. Also, most of the arrangements here are distinctively dramatic in character. Back to the heavier compositions on the album, it must be said that Gongzilla's Cathedral Metal is far from any traditional forms of Progressive Doom-Metal and is based on a highly original (incomparable with anything) ultra-modern Gothic Rock, which, in addition, is filled with hypnotism. The alternation of merely dark shades and eerie ones, all of which, though, aren't that noticeable at the first (or superficial) listening to the album, is typical for the musical palette of any of the four tracks that I mentioned in this review first. The heavy, fat solos of Hansford's bass play a prominent role here, while those of electric guitars interlace with each other weaving intricate patterns like being laid-back from all the surrounding musical events. Amazingly impressive stuff! David Torn (see line-up above) is an ECM artist, and I heard a few of his solo and collaborative albums. Like Bon whose view on music isn't limited by any stylistic framework, David is also an open-minded guitarist, and in my view, his style of playing a guitar fits better the music of Gongzilla than that of Allan Holdsworth. There are no ballad-like pieces on "Thrive" and all five of the other compositions on the album are complex, diverse, and very intriguing. Here, the arrangements are based on a wide variety of interplay between all of the band members and most of them are in the state of constant development. Les Vosges (6) is the only composition on the album where passages and solos of an acoustic guitar are at the forefront of arrangements along with solos of electric guitars and those of bass. Listen to the Wind (7) is above all notable for the pronounced, highly inventive solos of bass that dominate the parts of the other instruments throughout the composition. Despite the fact that unlike "Suffer", Benoit Moerlen's vibraphones are involved in the arrangements on only about a half of the tracks on "Thrive", overall, this album looks more coherent than the previous one. Now, having acquainted with two out of the three studio albums by Gongzilla, I can assert that this is one of the best supergroups ever existed in the history of Rock music.

VM: April 23, 2003

Synopsis. This album was recorded during the band's performance at the Festival du Beat Molson Dry in Quebec City, Canada, on May 27, 1998. Although Soli (7) is the only new piece on "Live", and five out of six of the other tracks here are from "Suffer", the album has a genuinely fresh feel to it in its entirety. (In fact however, Soli is a Hansford Rowe piece originally recorded on Gong's "Espresso II".) The 'live' versions of all of the band's earlier compositions at least slightly differ from the originals and are heavier than them, which is especially topical with regard to Mr. Sinister Minister, Gongzilla's Dilemma, Image, and Gongzilla (1, 3, 5, & 6). The style that the first two of them were here performed in is a confluence of Classic Jazz-Fusion and Prog-Metal, while both of the latter are about the band's very own and highly unique Cathedral Metal with elements of Jazz-Fusion and Psychedelic Rock. These two are just filled with hypnotism and magic and are rich in amazing tempo contrasts between the slow, pulsating solos and riffs of bass and mid-tempo and fast solos of guitars and vibraphone. The music on Bad Habits, Hip-Hopnosis, as well as on the aforementioned Soli, represents quite a harsh and hard-edged Jazz-Fusion in the best traditions of the genre, though Soli contains in addition a powerful up-tempo jam that all of the musicians are involved in. All in all, this album is a very important document that displays not only the band's great capabilities to play live, but also their constantly developing inventiveness.

VM: May 7, 2003