[Archive] Review: Alithia - 'The Moon Has Fallen' LP.
Originally posted on our now-defunct old website (RIP), authored by fellow contributor Hamza. Check out the review and also the artist links included.
Peace, Love and Grindcore xoxo - Brady.
(Author's note: This is a moderately revised version of a review that was published in the now defunct Overdrive Music Magazine around the time that this album came out in 2018. In the interests of not changing history too much - I freaking hate it when people do that - the original unedited version is accessible here.)
Also, Overdrive did album scores, which I've decided not to bother with on ISC. This album was originally an 8.5, and it's grown on me. Listening to it now I'd probably bump that up to a 9, maybe even a 9.5. Prog fans, this band and album are an absolute treat. Do yourselves a favour and delve deep - Hamza)
Alithia’s second full-length hurls itself further into the stratosphere than the band has ever dared attempt before. Despite some flaws in its execution, it is a wonder to behold.
Melbourne’s Alithia are unique, underrated, unparalleled titans of Australian prog. Constantly using ideas that in other bands feel silly and overblown, there’s an earnestness about their brand of spaced out prog-rock that subverts the clichés that their genre is based around and turns it into something wholly theirs - "astral space core” – a self-label that should make me gag but coming from them is just incredibly endearing. I could compare them to bands like Breaking Orbit and Soen but it wouldn’t do them justice – they’re a band that seems to succeed through honest inspirado and creative will, and so their music is so much more than the sum of their influences. Their willingness to not take themselves too seriously and frequently get weird with their music allows them to tap into something that frees them from the their psych-prog trappings and morphs them into something both larger than life, and yet also incredibly human. They’re brilliant, they’re breathtaking.* They’re one of my all-time favourite bands.
Mark Vella (drums), Tibor Gede (bass) and David Constantino (keys) absolutely kill it as a rhythm section, conjuring up some of the most mesmerising grooves I’ve heard all year. John Rousavanis’ (guitar and vox) oddly compelling tenor is more upfront and mesmerising than on previous releases, and his emotional delivery is completely convincing the whole way through. His melodic singing and soaring, effect-laden guitar lines give us some of most of the most ear catching melodies and atmospheres in Alithia, most pronounced on psychedelic bangers like Empress and Diamonds, as well as in grandiose prog epics such as The Sun and the absolutely beautiful penultimate track Breathe, which has some of the best singing I’ve ever heard in an Alithia song. ‘The Moon Has Fallen’ is also the first album with official contributions of Jeffrey Ortiz to a studio album (additional percussion, keyboards, backing vocals), and his use of bells and other clinking percussive tools, which twinkle away in the background of songs such as Blood Moon. Also deserving a mention is their newest and youngest member, guitarist Nguyen Phambam (also of local prog up-and-comers Enlight)… but who I’m not actually sure is on the album.**
‘The Moon Has Fallen’ contains songs with much denser and much noisier arrangements than Alithia has ever attempted before – so much so that the mix often doesn’t feel able to fully contain it. This is particularly noticeable at low-mid volume, where the all-encompassing wall of sound feels right until the drums kick in, sounding very low and washed out. When the whole band is playing – which is most of the time – there’s an overwhelming amount of sound, and although it does manage to breathe remarkably well, it never really explodes in the way their debut ‘To The Edge of Time’ does. This makes some of the noisiest and most intense parts fall in on themselves; it’s sometimes hard to distinguish individual instruments, and I probably wouldn’t have a problem with this if it sounded noisier and more visceral, but after a certain point the dynamic range stays pretty flat while the layers of sound just keep piling up, and it’s a tad frustrating to listen at times, like there’s a sheet of glass in between you and the band. It far from kills the album, but I’d probably listen to this more if it wasn’t an issue at all.
But production problems aside, the album is a strikingly emotional take on progressive rock, a genre that often feels bogged down in its own conceptuality and feels depersonalised as a result. Alithia’s presence in the Melbourne music scene seems almost like an aberration,*** from the vaguely Eastern European vibe of their sound to the insane amount of energy with which they perform their otherwise quite dreamy and ethereal music. Despite being a cut under their masterpiece of a debut, ‘The Moon Has Fallen’ shows Alithia reaching for heights so far above their contemporaries that it’s hard not to be swept away, despite the album’s flaws. Prog fans, this band and album are a treat, go check it all out.
*sic – this was pre-cyberpunk.
**He’s not, and also RIP Enlight.
***It was, and it’s sorely missed.