Danish band Odd Palace are building up quite a name for themselves within the modern prog community, with one well received EP under their belt and a good number of festival performances since its release. Now they are here with debut album Things To Place On The Moon, looking to raise their stature within the scene.
Odd Palace are unashamedly fans of progressive music, with shades of Thank You Scientist and more than the occasional nod to The Mars Volta scattered throughout their most recent effort Things to Place on the Moon. The prog/tech scene is very overcrowded at the minute with bands who focus very heavily on technical wizardry, as opposed to songwriting, but Odd Palace sound like they understand this balance. Whilst there are songs on the album that seem to meander somewhat (the title track, for example, spends a lot of time doing very little), songs like ‘Liar’s Attire’ are brilliant in their straight forward, catchy nature.
Technically speaking, the album is very well produced and performed to a superbly high standard. The band manage to avoid the cliché of stellar production without any emotion by putting in a performance full of feeling and thought, and a variety of different styles are captured at their peaks.
Speaking of this breadth of influence, Odd Palace do pay tribute to a wealth of bands, all the way from King Crimson to Haken and Meshuggah, but this is still very much contained within the prog sphere. However, it is important to point out that the band are at their best when breaking out into the angular riffs which populate this album. The intro of ‘Counterpart’ and ‘The Alchemist’ showcase Odd Palace at their most out there, sure to strike a chord with fans.
It is very clear how much the band are fans of The Mars Volta throughout this album, with vocal lines seemingly taken from the mind of Cedric Bixler-Zavala himself, and guitar pedals which mimic TMV effects perfectly. To be able to imitate so closely is no small feat, however, so moving forward there is definitely potential for Odd Palace to turn this into their own ‘sound’.
As a result, it seems that Odd Palace definitely have it within them to break into the top tiers of modern prog, based on the potential found in this album.
