Uncommon Excursion

All I have to say about this CD is it's Mesmerizing. I've been listening to it for a couple months now and it's safe to say that this is one of my favorite albums. It's a lot more mellow than some of the previous Cales albums. The down to earth warm and gloomy epic blues rock atmosphere is the main attraction. It delivers the catchy poppyness of The Cure and ...this might sound strange but...Blind Melon?! (the track "Spiritual Bond" reminds me of Blind Melon for some reason), the epic hard rock atmosphere of Pink Floyd, and the melodic doom metal feel of Sentenced and early Kataonia. The vocals vary from each song, sometimes it will sound like the guy from Type O Negative and sometimes like the mild growls of Devin Townsend. There's even a female singer thrown in at times. Musically the band is diverse, throwing in acoustic guitars, keyboards, and something you don't hear very much in metal oriented music....horns. The lyrics are very personal, relating to past experiences in life and philosophies about what happiness really is. It's hard to choose which song is the greatest here seeing as how every song is a solid ballad and nothing is put in for the sake of filler, but I'd say the song you all must hear if you're in a mood for a bluesy doom metal song is "In the Landscape of Mind". The guitar harmonies in this song are smooth and the ballad like climax towards the end makes this a song you will always remember. The theme about the song deals with a utopia of some sort. This is the kind of music that should be played in proms. Where has this CD been all my life?! You gotta hear it for yourself to see what I mean when I say it's the perfect epic blues doom metal album for those times you want a magical ballad.