KLONE – The Unseen (2024) *HQ*
Returning with their 10th full-length album, ‘The Unseen’, progressive rock artsy band KLONE are pushing their already sumptuous sound to dizzying heights. A bold new journey through a singular yet contrasting soundscape, ‘The Unseen’ is an immersive, dreamlike experience.
It’s always reassuring when a progressive metal band display genuine signs of, indeed, progress. Klone released their debut album just over 20 years ago. Mired in churning riffs and tricky time signatures, it had much in common with their prog metal contemporaries, but gave occasional glimpses of a less frantic and more melodic future direction.
Klone’s obvious potential has been fulfilled many times over in the decades that followed, and their sound has undergone a complete transformation. Continuing the melodic explorations that some time ago, ‘The Unseen’ is a beautiful and sophisticated piece of work you need to check out.
They stopped making a furious racket a long time ago, but they have never sounded as elegant or assured as they do here. ‘Interlaced’ is a serene, spaced-out opener, with spectral atmospheres, a flurry of sublime saxophone solos and soulful vocals from frontman Yann Ligner. Perfectly paced and quietly imperious, it sets the tone for an album full of graceful moments.
The title track reinforces the point that Klone are now working purely on instinct. A shimmering squall of riffs and distorted crescendos, it’s a rare nod towards the band’s rowdy past – but delivered with all of the sextet’s customary finesse. In contrast, ‘Magnet’ is simply a very fine left-field rock song, and one of their most succinct and direct creations to date.
The album truly blossoms during its second half. ‘After The Sun’ is a dubby, post-rock fever dream with a big vocal melody and an underlying sense of simmering tension; ‘Desire Line’ is the album’s only significant curveball, with its stealthy, blues-tinged undercurrents, ghostly vocal harmonies and scratchy overtones; and the reverb-sodden ‘Slow Down’ drifts in on waves of melancholy, blending artful chord changes with meandering cosmic rock momentum.
Most striking of the lot is ‘Spring’: a subtly psychedelic encapsulation of Klone’s ongoing evolution, it begins as another wide-eyed drift through tranquil waters, before building to a clattering, distorted climax, thereafter dissolving into eerie, Floydian ambience, twinkling and thrumming with hypnotic persistence.
A band with a relentless hunger for what comes next, Klone have never sounded more confident or idiosyncratic than they do here. This is smart, soulful and spontaneous modern prog, and the perfect balance between grown-up songwriting and the joys of a limitless imagination.
Highly Recommended
01 – Interlaced
02 – The Unseen
03 – Magnetic
04 – After the Sun
05 – Desire Line
06 – Slow Down
07 – Spring
Yann Ligner – Vocals
Aldrick Guadagnino – Guitars
Enzo Alfano – Bass
Guillaume Bernard – Guitars
Morgan Berthet – Drums
Matthieu Metzger – Samples, Wind Midi Controller, Keyboards, Saxophones
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