Member:
ffroyd
(Profile)
(All Album Reviews by ffroyd)
Date:
12/4/2003
Format:
CD (Album)
Witsend is the band that is now known as Syzygy. Cosmos and Chaos was originally released in 1993 and unfortunately has been overlooked for years. When I recently got my copy of this CD I wasn't expecting it to be nearly as good as Syzygy's recent release The Allegory of Light. Fortunately, I couldn't have been more wrong. Although it's not as heavy or quite as dynamic, Cosmos and Chaos is still a brilliant disc and a very enjoyable listen. The album has been out of print for several years but due to recent events the band decided to remaster and re-release it.
This features the same lineup of Carl Baldassarre on guitars, Sam Giunta on Keyboards and Paul Mihacevich on drums and percussion. Their playing style as Syzygy hasn't changed much since this one which also has a very high-energy symphonic style. The one difference now is that the different instruments are a bit more pronounced but that is a very minor quibble since the subtlety of this music is one of it's strong points. Also, "Circadian Rhythm" is the one and only song on here with vocals. As is the case with Allegory of Light, the song order has a perfect dramatic flow and doesn't seem to drag at all throughout.
One of the things that stands out most for me on this one are Carl's two acoustic guitar "Etudes", which provide very beautiful short interludes between some heavier moments on the album. Actually, there are quite a few really nice acoustic guitar moments, another one comes during the song "Tautology" which is a beautiful duet between acoustic and distorted electric guitars.
"Poetry In B Minor" is a solo piano piece from Sam. His keyboard playing through the album is much more relaxed and the Emerson influence is underplayed. There are some great synth and organ parts on the track "Strange Loop II" as well as "Closure" and the brilliant opening track "Voyager". Paul Mihacevich's drumming is a tad reserved on this compared to what he's doing now but he still managed to be very impressive in a few spots on this like during parts of the excellent "Mount Ethereal" and also the final number "Chaos" in which the whole band seems to come unglued.
I was very surprised at how good this was, I wasn't expecting it to be as good as Allegory of Light but it's damn close. I hope this trio doesn't wait another 10 years before releasing another one.
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