Detailed Reviews [Scythe - 2001 - "Divorced Land"]

Prologue. "Divorced Land" is the debut album by Scythe and the fourth release of "Galileo Records". By the way, Scythe's vocalist and guitarist Thomas Thielen (under the pseudonym of T) has already released his first solo album "Naive" as well. To read the review of this album, click here.

The Album. I have read a few reviews of Scythe's debut album before listening to it myself. Throughout most of the reviews this band has been compared to Marillion. These ears, however, haven't found the influences of Neo Heroes on "Divorced Land". Furthermore, this album is more complex than any Marillion albums with the exception of "Brave". In fact, early Genesis influences can be heard from Scythe. However, unlike many other bands, Scythe are positively influenced by Genesis. To be precise, they're influenced by the legacy of this great band. Most of the compositional and all of the performing constituents of Scythe's music can't be compared to those of Genesis. There are no solos in the manner of Tony Banks and / or Steve Hackett or Peter Gabriel-like vocals on "Divorced Land". Only the Spirit of Legend is obvious on this album. Their music is on the whole as wonderful as the best works of Symphonic Art-Rock in the heyday of the genre. There are six long songs and four short instrumentals on the album. However, the opening instrumental A Striving After Wind can be regarded as the intro to Am I Really Here. It is because the real intro of this song is nothing else but the logical continuation of the last theme of A Striving After Wind. (Actually, there is no pause between these tracks.) Two other instrumentals, - Access and Naivety (tracks 6 & 8), - are the real symphonic pieces, both of which were performed without drums. The first of them consists of interesting interplay between passages of piano and synthesizer, and solos of bass guitar. The second one features the joint sound of semi-acoustic guitar and various pedal-effects (such as Delay, Chorus, etc), as well as very effective interplay between passages of a few keyboards, including organ, and fluid solos of electric guitar. So, with the exception of Faded (track 3), which is kind of a "piece for bass and drums", the album was created within the framework of a unified stylistics. It is time to describe the main contents of the album that are presented on the seven remaining tracks (including the opening one, of course). These are: A Striving After Wind, Am I Really Here, One Step Further, The Weight of the Wind, Discussed, Run, and Denied (tracks 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, & 10). Taken together, they last almost 70 minutes, which is equal to the average statistical double album of the pre-CD era. It is difficult to choose the winners among them, though both of the long epic songs, - One Step Further and Denied, - seem to be a bit more intriguing than the others. (As their arrangements are more large-scaled.) Stylistically, all of these seven songs represent a truly Classic Symphonic Art-Rock, which, on the whole, is rather original both instrumentally and vocally. (I think it is good that I wrote the review of the debut album by T yesterday.) First off, I'd like to mention that, unlike Genesis, Scythe don't use an acoustic guitar, though there are the passages of semi-acoustic guitar on this album. Here and there, they are heard on all of the songs on the album, while the album's opener is the only track here, in the arrangements of which they play a significant role. By the way, Mellotron and organ appear only from time to time as well. Finally, the 'guest' solos of flute are featured only on Run (track 9). Apart from the rhythm-section, the main 'structures' of the arrangements on this album are: the passages of acoustic and electric pianos, solos and chords of various synthesizers, heavy riffs and fluid solos of electric guitar, and vocals, of course. The absolute majority of instrumental arrangements on the album are filled with seemingly endless, tonal and atonal, interplay between various soloing instruments, kaleidoscopic changes of tempos and mood, complex time signatures, and all of the other essential progressive ingredients. The vocals are also diverse and rich in various emotions, though overall, the vocal palette on this album is less dramatic than that in the works of Genesis and especially Marillion. Finally, it needs to be said that all of the Scythe members are

Summary. "Divorced Land" is more than merely an impressive debut and, undoubtedly, this is one of the best Symphonic Progressive Rock albums of 2001. As well as Marillion, Xitizen Cain, Ezra Winston, IQ, Cast, Metaphor, to name a few, Scythe are the true followers of Genesis and their golden legacy. Certainly, this album comes highly recommended to thousands of those who know who they are, and what they like.

VM. March 21, 2002