Coste Apetrea - “Rites Of Passage”
Coste Apetrea - “Rites Of Passage”
(c) 2006 Lion Music
Who or what is Coste Apetrea? That was the first question I asked myself. You have to understand that when the package arrived from Lion Music (http://www.lionmusic.com), the discs enclosed were all promo copies without any artwork. So, being the uneducated progster that I am, I didn’t know if it was a person or a group or what. Instead of doing research first, I popped it in the car CD player (my regular critical listening environment) and let my ears do the research.
My first reaction was one of surprise. I had been led to believe that Lion Music was a prog metal label, but while this was heavy, it was not metal. It screams “prog!” and in places whispers “fusion!” so it was right up my alley. The amazing thing about it is that it is such a varied yet cohesive album. The songs differ from each other, and of course the beginning may be entirely different from the end, but yet it doesn’t make the listener feel like he’s being dragged from one extreme to the other. The music is complex, but not in a math-rock sort of way, and it’s all infused with a certain degree of fun which brought a smile to this reviewer’s face many times.
So, who or what is Coste Apetrea? After doing some internet research, I found that he is (or was) the guitarist from Samla Mammas Manna, the acclaimed Swedish prog band. Cool! That’s the second amazing thing about this album. It’s a guitarist’s solo album, but not in the same vein of something Joe Satriani or Steve Vai would do. These aren’t “listen to me play guitar in multiple styles” songs, they’re full band songs. The compositions aren’t guitar solo vehicles, they use the entire group and allow for interplay and solos from other musicians. And the other musicians aren’t bad either. Two of the songs have vocals, and they sound good (not always the case with guitarists’ solo albums) and they don’t detract from the instrumentals one bit. That said, if they hadn’t been there, I wouldn’t have missed them or felt the album was lacking even a little bit.
This is truly progressive music. It has gone beyond what I’ve heard before. That, in my opinion, is the best thing I can say about an album.