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Zombi - Spirit Animal review



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8 users:
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Band: Zombi
Album: Spirit Animal
Style: Progressive rock
Release date: February 03, 2009
A review by: jupitreas


01. Spirit Animal
02. Spirt Warrior
03. Earthly Powers
04. Cosmic Powers
05. Through Time

The new Vangelis album Spirit Animal is a great achievement in moody, somewhat spacey progressive rock of the variety that plays like the score to a film that has not in fact been made. Uh, whoooops... I meant Zombi, of course, not Vangelis. My Freudian slip can be forgiven though, since Spirit Animal really does sound like a lost Vangelis film score.

Zombi finally add guitars to their sound, as if to justify reviewing the album on a metal website besides being released by Relapse. The guitar is nevertheless never overpowering and generally simply adds some more human emotion to the band's primarily synth-driven sound. Furthermore, the more riff-based compositions also add structure to Zombi's style, making these pieces more tight and concise - still ambient as hell but with a clear direction. It also sounds really quite excellent, recalling not only Vangelis but also Goblin, Rush, Tangerine Dream and Porcupine Tree. Forget about these musical traits though - by far the greatest draw towards Spirit Animal is actually its immensely epic cinematic scope. Indeed, this album made my daily journey from work back home into a bona fide odyssey and I caught myself moving in slow motion on a few occasions, or glancing at my reflection in store windows. All of a sudden, the bums I usually avoid like the plague on the streets of Warsaw became broken androids and I felt like hunting them down and decapitating them. Sure, it made me look like a complete moron to any onlookers but who cares? For a brief moment I was a blade runner.

Spirit Animal might not be a terribly original concept and it is certainly not music that you can listen to every day. Nevertheless, no matter how mundane and boring what you are doing might actually be, this album will make it seem like a science fiction epic and there is nothing quite like this sensation. Dario Argento, George A. Romero and John Carpenter, take notice: Zombi should score your next flick.





Written on 13.05.2009 by With Metal Storm since 2002, jupitreas has been subjecting the masses to his reviews for quite a while now. He lives in Warsaw, Poland, where he does his best to avoid prosecution for being so cool.


Comments

Comments: 10   Visited by: 95 users
13.05.2009 - 17:22
PrettyMao
Nice review and all, but you forgot to discuss how AWESOME the cover is!

I know I am going to check out this album soley based on the cover. Who doesn't like pissed off charging elephants?!?!?
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The Mao loves you all!!!

**KISS**KISS**
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13.05.2009 - 17:33
jupitreas
hi-fi / lo-life
Staff
Written by PrettyMao on 13.05.2009 at 17:22

Nice review and all, but you forgot to discuss how AWESOME the cover is!

I know I am going to check out this album soley based on the cover. Who doesn't like pissed off charging elephants?!?!?

Then you're going to like this album even more. And BTW - I didn't forget about the cover, I just didn't think it was worth mentioning.
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13.05.2009 - 18:02
PrettyMao
Written by jupitreas on 13.05.2009 at 17:33

And BTW - I didn't forget about the cover, I just didn't think it was worth mentioning.

It was the cover that made me click on the review.... I was wondering what kind of bad asses would have such an awesome cover.

The Vangelis connection also makes this album interesting to me as well.
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The Mao loves you all!!!

**KISS**KISS**
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13.05.2009 - 18:30
Rating: 8
Rupert
This stuff's pretty cool. I'm listening to their myspace songs and it's definitely something I want to get.
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13.05.2009 - 21:12
Ivor
Staff
Mmmm... this hit right home this evening. This spacey/psych kind of instrumental stuff is excellent once in a while. I did come across Zombi a couple of months ago when I heard Maserati / Zombi split EP. Maserati impressed far more then and I didn't bother to dig deeper into Zombi. Seems that I should have done otherwise. Another band I've liked that does similar stuff is Hidria Spacefolk. That actually opened this kind of music to me. I haven't been searching much, though. So, Jups, if you have suggestions in similar tone, fire away. I wouldn't mind checking them out.

To those of you who liked Zombi, check out Maserati and Hidria Spacefolk as well.

I.
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13.05.2009 - 22:37
Susan
Smeghead
Elite
(One more vote here for the cover art being cool!)

Yes, this music is very cinematic, but it's SO synthesized! Overly so. It no longer sounds space-agey, it sounds cheap. I'm sure they could have dug up A FEW real instrumental performances for this?

And I see what you mean, Jup, by it's not music you can listen to everyday. The compositions are not bad, not bad at all. But so many repetitive riffs (which would lend themselves well to a film score) just go on.... and on...
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"A life all mine
Is what I choose
At the end of my days"
--The Gathering "A Life All Mine" from Souvenirs
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14.05.2009 - 20:15
Rating: 8
Fat & Sassy!
Elite
Written by PrettyMao on 13.05.2009 at 17:22

Nice review and all, but you forgot to discuss how AWESOME the cover is!

I know I am going to check out this album soley based on the cover. Who doesn't like pissed off charging elephants?!?!?

That's EXACTAY why I thought when I saw the cover. So fucking raw.

Is it me, or does a lot of this album sound like a sequel to Genius's album, The Lamb Lays Down on Broadway?
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20.05.2009 - 09:39
Ph0eNiX
Fire from Above
Written by Susan on 13.05.2009 at 22:37

(One more vote here for the cover art being cool!)

Yes, this music is very cinematic, but it's SO synthesized! Overly so. It no longer sounds space-agey, it sounds cheap. I'm sure they could have dug up A FEW real instrumental performances for this?

And I see what you mean, Jup, by it's not music you can listen to everyday. The compositions are not bad, not bad at all. But so many repetitive riffs (which would lend themselves well to a film score) just go on.... and on...

So, is the elephant so angry that it has manefested the power to weild lightning? Is the purplish cloud emitting the lightning in there a scentient energy force controling the elephant? Maybe the purplish cloud is chasing the elephant and scaring the crap out of it with the lightning? MAybe the purplish cloud has manifested anangry elephant?

Granted the pissed off elephant idea is a good one but there's a 3rd of that cover being dominated by that kinda purple cloud and the lightning. No one hass adressed that one bit at all.

There's also the matter of the blue glowing orb (which I assume is super huge) behind the elephant as well. Aside from the possibility of that comming across initially as "It's Jesus!!!!!" I'm too tired to continue with this.

There is unanswered stuff in here about the agitation of the elephant! I just know it!

Other than that, I'll checkout their stuff and see if I agree with your observations thru listening. (The album may explain this also.)
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24.08.2009 - 09:38
Rating: 8
Fat & Sassy!
Elite
I really enjoy listening to this album. Your so right about it sounding like a soundtrack to a classic science fiction film.
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03.11.2009 - 00:07
Rating: 9
bangladesh
The artwork is very important in this kind of instrumental music because the two are very well connected, the music is like a soudtrack from a national geographic report about elephants running from a lightning storm

Excelent album
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