In Dante’s Inferno, the second circle begins the proper punishment of Hell, a place where “no thing gleams.” It is reserved for those overcome with Lust, where carnal appetites hold sway over reason. In Nine Circles, it’s where we do shorter (USUALLY) reviews of new (ish) albums that share a common theme.
We talk a lot about following specific bands wherever their muse may take us (Opeth, anyone?); it’s part of the contract we make with a band we really admire. Just as often, though, when you find a good one, the same thing can happen with a label. Longtime astute readers of the site probably figured out which of us are in the bag for labels like 20 Buck Spin, the Flenser, and Pelagic, just to name a few. Well you can add Karisma Records to the list for me: the Norwegian label has been behind some of the best progressive rock in the past few decades, and has a refreshingly flexible and open mind when it comes to how the term “progressive” is defined. So for this edition of Second Circle let’s take a look at two bands with recent releases stretching the definition and putting out some great music, no matter how you define it: Meer and Ritual.
Time to descend.
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Listening to Wheels Within Wheels, the third release from Norway’s Meer, the first touchstone for me was Anathema, in large part to the excellent blend of male and female vocals. The band is led by the brother/sister team of Knut and Johanne Nesdal, and like the aforementioned UK institution the two layer and play off each other beautifully, soundtracked to lush alternative rock and pop filtered through a definitive post rock sheen. Opening with “Chains of Changes” the album is very keyboard and synth heavy, allowing tapestries of sound to envelop the Nestle siblings’ rich melodies. Lyrically the songs speak to the loss that accompanies knowledge; despite not being much of a lyrics guy I was immediately drawn to lines like “we didn’t fear the dark until the fluorescent lights were turned on around us.”
And like any great surveyor of the pop/rock landscape, Meer know how to rock an anthemic chorus, whether it’s buoyed with a more propulsive bass figure as on “Behave” or the urgent disco cadence of “Golden Circle” – when the two blend together to shout “It’s never over it’s just out of sight, out of time” you won’t be able to help singing along. There’s a fire and passion to the slower tracks as well, with “Today Tonight Tomorrow” showing another side of the band that certainly may not qualify for “extreme” in any sense this website usually traffics in, but careful listen will show how ably Meer are able to take a myriad of styles that other, heavier bands use and filter it through their own unique, progressive lens.
Every time I play Wheels Within Wheels I like it more and more. Folks looking for something new that still has tethers to the metal works (tenuous they may be) can do a lot worse than steer themselves over to Meer and see the magic they’re cooking up.
Wheels Within Wheels is out now from Karisma Records. For more information on Meer, check out their Facebook page.
You’d be forgiven even if you’re a prog nerd like me for missing Ritual, the Swedish stalwarts of the new-prog scene: the band hadn’t released an album in 17 years, with its members focused elsewhere. That all changes with The Story of Mr. Bodg Part 1, which finds the band reunited in form and utterly united in intent: this is a true concept album (well, the first part anyway), telling the story of the titular character as he runs away from him to seek his fortunes in a magical world where the evils of corporate finance can’t touch him. An actual narrative, as opposed to the hundreds (thousands?) of metal bands (power metal excluded, and that hopefully is the end of all these parentheticals) that define a concept record as a loose grouping of songs around a common theme. But even if the story doesn’t grab you, the music most certainly will.
To wit: no one else I’ve ever heard really sounds like Ritual. You can lay some comparisons to Jethro Tull with the extensive use of folk arrangements and traditionally non-rock acoustic instruments such as bouzouki, mandala, and a keyed fiddle called a nychelharpa. For me though it all sits with the magnificent voice and vocal arrangements of Patrik Lundström, who also doubles as the vocalist for Kaipa, speaking of bands who put out excellent album in 2024. But Ritual is his passion, and the way he’s able to weave melodies out of all the words is captivating. It reminds me at times of someone like Elvis Costello, not in timbre but in his amazing facility to construct catchy melodies out of novel-length lyrics.
And the music? There is no bigger ear worm for me right now that the chorus to “Chichikov Bodg” which I’ve been singing for over a month now. And when the band goes prog, they go full on: check out the crazed instrumentation on “Read all about it!” and prepare to be as enthralled as I am with The Story of Mr. Bodg. The sequel can’t come quick enough; in the meantime I’m going to be catching up on all the albums I missed along the way.
The Story of Mr. Bodg is out now from Karisma Records. For more information on Ritual, check out their website and Facebook page.
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Until next time, keep it heavy…keep it safe.
– Chris
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