Final installment from the current batch of new releases from Lion Music (www.lionmusic.com) and at the least it could be described as quirky. And that’s quirky in a positive sense, a musical landscape incorporating a myriad of styles and set within the framework of a concept piece. As I’ve said before, the basis of concept/progressive rock isn’t really my bag but being an old fart, I hear the influence of both Rush and early Yes within “The Astral Factor”. The band are centred around Vintersorg main player, Mr. V with contributions from various guest artists. The album is a meandering collection of art-rock, taking ideas from Scandinavian folk music and adding an element of symphonic rock to keep the piece up to date. 

Like a lot of progressive albums “The Astral Factor” is a grower, it doesn’t inflame the senses from the off and takes a few spins to really get the point.  Because of my interest in bands such as Rush, Genesis and Yes I found the album fairly easy to listen to and whilst it’s not designed to get the adrenaline flowing it has a very listenable quality. Musically there’s plenty going on, sweeping organs and tastefully sparse guitar set an eclectic scene for Mr. V’s ethereal story telling.  Without any disrespect to the band, this album is perfect as a background listen whilst reading or something equally relaxing, not essentially background music, but a good soundtrack to a laid back situation if you will. 

Whether by accident or design the album has a very Seventies feel throughout and the production quality further enhances that view, without being over-polished the nostalgic groove effortlessly swallows up the jazzy instrumental sections and exudes a flavour of early Deep Purple in it’s overall delivery, which has managed to set the album apart from some of the more mainstream angles of the genre (which in honesty send me into an almost catatonic state of boredom quite rapidly), it unconsciously holds the attention. Being an Ebay addict, more than half a dozen times I’ve played this album over and over for two to three hours (spending a small fortune on the site) and haven’t got sick of it yet. A good positive, almost uplifting piece of work that doesn’t rattle the ears but will certainly rattle the imagination.

Let us know your views on 'The Astral Factor'

Track List

Mountains
Floating
The Astral Factor
Diamond Moon
Painting Without Colours
Midnight Flye
Scarytale
Timewind