In an era where to be progressive seems to equate to adhering to a formula laid down somewhere around 1974, Earthside are part of a small community of artists who take the term at face value, imbuing their music with a genuine sense of ambition and high drama. While their approach may be off-putting for those who prefer their music to rock with a rather more straightforward urgency, for those looking for something genuinely unique, Earthside have much to offer. Recorded with a remarkable array of vocalists, Let The Truth Speak is a meticulously arranged, beautifully performed and recorded album, that draws from past and present alike to offer something refreshingly different.
It opens with But What If We’re Wrong (featuring Sandbox Percussion), a syncopated piece that pairs the airy tones of Tubular Bells with the insistent, tension-building percussion of James Horner. A taut, cinematic introduction, it abruptly comes to a halt, throwing the listener off, before a piercing trill of feedback announces a crushing riff that ties all the pieces together, setting the album on its path in the process. It gives way to the lengthy We Who Lament (featuring Keturah), a track that draws liberally from Katatonia and Tesseract, before the ever-astonishing percussion of Ben Shanbrom takes things in a harder-prog direction, the stabbing mid-section and continually shifting arrangement recalling elements of Tool and King Crimson. It’s an astonishing performance, one that’s worthy of the price of admission alone but, as we are to discover, the band are only just getting started. Next up, the similarly expansive Tyranny (featuring Pritam Adhikary) opens with a blistering riff from Jamie van Dyck, the band delighting in keeping things off-kilter, although the soaring strings and clean vocals that follow allow for a certain respite, the band indulging an approach that crosses Vola with an exceptionally heavy take on early Genesis. With a strong vocal performance at its core, it’s a sweeping epic, and it maintains an old-school progressive vibe to it, for all that the riffs blaze with modern fury. The shorter Pattern Of Rebirth is a svelte piece, not quite hitting the five-minute mark, and boasting an initially smooth, R&B influenced vocal from AJ Channer, although things soon pick up, as AJ comes to inhabit the track. The first half concludes with the bruising Watching The Earth Sink, a near-twelve-minute saga that, despite being instrumental, captivates the listener from its opening note to the final crash of the cymbals.
It’s as the second half opens that things get, well… weird. Another lengthy piece, The Lesser Evil (featuring Larry Braggs and Sam Gendel) is the apparent result of crossbreeding Genesis with Meshuggah, Prince, and Toto. From its soaring hard rock vocals, via the gleaming brass section and monstrously heavy riffs, the closest relative would probably be the hard rock theatrics of Molybaron, although this goes a step further, even throwing in a flute solo towards its conclusion. The wonderful Keturah returns for Denial’s Aria (alongside VikKe and Duo Scorpio), for a song that takes the swooning leads of latter day anathema, adding in a touch of Halsey for good measure. The brief Vespers (featuring Gennady Tkachenko & VikKe) is an oasis of gorgeous ambient sounds, with a hint of Eastern spice, before the pace picks up once more on Let The Truth Speak. With contributions from Daniel Tompkins and Gennady, it’s an energetic rocker, with elastic riffs and complex percussion weaving their web around Daniel’s richly textured vocals – and that’s just the opening. As the track edges into ever heavier territory, so elements of Tool filter into the mix, and Daniel delivers a stunning performance, clearly galvanised by Earthside’s mercurial arrangements. The album concludes with another instrumental and, once again, it is a lengthy trip into the unknown. Entitled All We Ever Knew And Loved, it’s a monstrous neo-classical work that ebbs and flows with remarkable grace, drawing on a range of artists from Wagner to Mike Oldfield, via Tool and Peter Gabriel. It is a stunning coda to an album that never shies away from a challenge, and it leaves the listener somewhat in awe of Earthside’s steely determination to follow their muse and be damned.
Very much an album you’ll love or hate, the genre hopping acrobatics of Earthside were never going to arouse ambivalence, and there is little here that is straightforward. With an impressive array of guest vocalists lending their skills to the band’s ambitious music, it says much of Earthside’s sublime confidence that there’s a consistency throughout, despite the ever-changing cast. Beautifully produced, and with impressive musicianship from the band, Let The Truth Speak is a majestic and frequently dramatic experience. 8.5/10
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