Buffalo prog rockers Turning Virtue dropped a genre bending unique album “He Held The Sun Captive”. It’s the most unique album they’ve put out. They used to be a band in the 90’s and there’s been a few versions. Turning Virtue dropped “A Temporary Human Experience” in 2016 and made their triumphant return. Baard Kolstad of Leprous was employed to record drums for this album and his unique style brought this album to new heights. TV always had a rockier side and some heavier riffs in their sound….but focused on compositional songwriting and progressions more so. Distortion is barely used on this album, and mainly used cleaner tones with reverb and delay. It’s a dense listen with the different vocal harmonies and added keyboard parts by Dan Sciolino of Forever In Transit. I understand I’m a little late on this review but it’s an album that takes a few listens to soak in musically speaking. And let me tell you it’s worth the effort.
The art for every Turning Virtue album is stunning but this one takes the cake. It’s so detailed, beautiful and jaw dropping. Also, the guys got a piece made for all 4 songs on this release. The lyrics are always well thought out and the themes are not generic and usually deep. “He Held The Sun Captive” ventures into the human elements, its beauties and flaws, and how we are (good and bad) as humans. It’s a reminder of the journey as human beings to be the best we can be but a reminder of how bad we can be. The character clearly struggles with that, like we all do. The lyric quoted from their song “Facilitation” from this album shows how greedy our species can get. It really hit home with me.
Frontman/Guitarist/Composer Davey K always puts a lot of time, effort and thought into their music and themes. He has been keeping me updated on this quest and it’s been an honor to have such a friend in my life. It’s such a unique album and a game changer for them. But in the end it’s still Turning Virtue. It has his beautifully haunting doubled vocals (and occasional harmonies) in every song. It doesn’t have the heavier riffing of songs in their catalogue like “Theody” and “Fall In Love With The World”. It relies a lot on atmosphere, mood and the unique chording in all four songs. It excels in those aspects greatly.
The song “Facilitation” also has a ton of guitar leads from Gavin Bushell of Godsticks. They’re absolutely phenomenal and he goes off for minutes. The album flows so well it would have been odd to release a single and agree with them. Davey explains why in a video below.
It’s safe to say their first attempt at a fully atmospheric album is a fantastic one. I’m a fan of layering and sounds great. Some bands overdo it but they knew what sections needed more and some needed to be more stripped down or basic. Also, there was some spoken word on this new album which was pretty cool. They never fail to run out of cool ideas and execute them well.
Overall this album is a great experience and provides great music, themes and thought provoking lyrics. They took even more chances and blended more ideas and can say I dig their atmospheric side. I can’t wait to see them play out again here in Buffalo. Their live light shows are mind blowing and they put a lot of effort into it. I have seen them live many times since 2016 and can say they put on a great show. I won’t say much but they have a lot of fun stuff in the works. “He Held The Sun Captive” is just the start. You can stream the album everywhere for your listening pleasures and most importantly snag a cd and t shirt to support the guys.
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