Detailed Reviews [Flight 09 - 2003 - "Forbidden Lullabies"]

Flight 09 (Uzbekistan) - 2003 - "Forbidden Lullabies"
(48 min, Neurosis)

Prolusion. "Forbidden Lullabies" is the second official album by Uzbekistan's Flight 09. Their first album: "Rifflection" was released last year, and the review of it is located >here. Like the band's debut, "Forbidden Lullabies" is 48+ minutes in length, but there are only eight tracks on it, and not twelve.

Synopsis. In my honest opinion, such conceptions as a friendly association (of the people from same area, etc) can never be employed for selfish and related ends in the art, and especially in music. Thankfully, music is boundless and, moreover, doesn't recognize any barriers. I am going to acclaim "Forbidden Lullabies" just because it is really worthy of it, which, by the way, was already more than once confirmed in the other reviews of the album, among which those by Phil at Zeigeist and George at European Prog Rock Reviews are especially insightful. Well, Flight 09's second album is much, in every respect better than "Rifflection", and if I really like only two out of the twelve tracks there, "Forbidden Lullabies" consists exclusively of excellent songs and masterpieces. Here, the band has finally found their distinct style, and only the first two songs on the album: You Got My Love and Look Around are done in the vein of Classic British (not American!) proto-progressive Hard Rock of the seventies and may arouse some associations with Nazareth's Hair of the Dog (1975) and Led Zeppelin's In the Evening (from 1979's "In Through the Out Door") respectively. These two are by all means excellent songs full of tasteful riffs, inflammatory solos, and a true Hard Rock drive, and nevertheless, there are too few progressive elements and they are slightly overextended. All of the other songs on the album (3 to 8: see track list above) I sincerely regard as masterpieces, and the unpredictability (I'd even say unexpectedness) of development of musical events is one of the central hallmarks of almost all of them. Those six are different among themselves by varied compositional and performance aspects, and yet, on each of them, without exception, is presented a very original and rather innovative style, which I see as Progressive Cathedral Rock. Although I can describe this music as a moderately dark, tense, dramatic, really diverse and progressive Hard Rock with a lot of elements of Symphonic Progressive, it is in reality so unusual that these words are not adequate to convey all the beauties and virtues therein, especially since most of them are obscure and will become apparent only after a few successive and thorough listens to the album.

Conclusion. If you aren't indifferent towards Progressive Hard Rock in general and such mild manifestations of Symphonic Cathedral Metal as that, which is presented on Tiamat's "Wildhoney" (just for instance) in particular, please call your attention to Flight 09's "Forbidden Lullabies". These are heavy and really extraordinary lullabies, though they are symphonic as well and, finally, are just amazingly magnetic. Honest.

VM: November 10, 2003