Waveriders I am going to begin this review in a rather unconventional manner. I should not like Return To The Core by Albinö Rhino. There, I said it. This band and this album have traits that I typically do not respond well to or particularly enjoy. What could I be referring to you ask? Here are two of my main misgivings:
1) Albinö Rhino plays space rock. I have nothing against space rock but I don’t find myself seeking it out and I don’t own much from the genre in my collection. Why? I typically like my music to be more energetic and hard-driving.
2) This is a 35 minute track built on repetition of one central theme. The song length doesn’t bother me but I don’t particularly care for extended tracks that endlessly repeat one riff or one melody. I get bored.
Before going any further allow me to state for the record that I like this album. I like this album a lot. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say that I love this album! I was smitten upon my first run through. My love of this album was cemented in place after the second and third run through. It was a terrifically fast courtship! But what about those misgivings I just wrote about?
First and foremost this is definitely space rock. Make no mistake. Spacey sound effects constantly swirl around the guitar/bass/drums. The vocals only come into play sporadically throughout the album and when they do appear they sound as if they were emanating from a long distance radio receiver. Second, there is no getting around the fact that there is a large amount of repetition of the main guitar melody. That said, Albinö Rhino does a superb job in evolving the melody throughout the album while staying anchored to the song’s musical identity. The guitars progress from acoustic strumming, to electric riffing, to fully distorted blasts of crushing power and back again multiple times. Return To The Core does not lack for energetic or hard-driving movements, and I never find myself even considering the possibility of boredom. Lastly, I really enjoy the melody of this song. It got stuck in my head immediately and I didn’t want it to leave.
My fellow waveriders, Return To The Core from Albinö Rhino is most definitely a trip you want to take. This album puts you through preflight check, propels you on a course through the galaxy, and returns you safe and sound to Earth! Depending on your chosen preparations you may leave a bit of your consciousness cruising around the cosmos but is that really a bad thing? Nah! And besides, all you need to do to reacquire said consciousness is take the musical journey again! It’s a win-win!
-Penfold
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