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Thinking Plague - In Extremis

Wednesday, 28 November 2007

Editor's rating

9.3

out of 10

Reviewed by:
Chad Coup
#1 Reviewer
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Wednesday, 28 November 2007
Average user rating: 9.0
1 User reviews

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Music Information

Track Listing:
01. Dead Silence
02. Behold The Man
03. This Weird Wind
04. Les Etudes d'Organism
05. Maelstrom
06. The Aesthete
07. Kingdom Come

Artist: Thinking Plague
Title: In Extremis
Genre: Progressive Rock
Release Date: 13 October 1998
Record Label: Cuneiform Records
Format: Full-length
Country: United States of America
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Editor review

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful


Overall rating (weighted)		9.3
Musicianship		10.0
Composition		10.0
Experimentation		8.0
Production		9.0
Value		9.0

This is a really amazing album. Not only does the band channel the 1970's RIO/Canterbury insanity of both Henry Cow/Art Bears and Gentle Giant, they do it with an impressive array of instruments including a female vocalist. Any progressive act featuring a female vocalist is positively refreshing and welcome. Deborah Perry has a wispy, ghostly quality and given that the music is unsettling stuff in the first place, it only makes the overall product even better.

Most of the album is in minor key, just like the aforementioned legends of prog rock before them. Every few bars have a sour, percussive concoction that repels and attracts curious music fans. Those who are easily turned off by strange-sounding music can put this album down. Adventurous music aficionados with an ear for a different kind of beauty can find a ton of good stuff to dig here. Use of the violin, harmonium, accordion, saxes, Mellotron, banjo, wind instruments, and seemingly every thing in between paints a most vivid picture that even the most discriminating music fan can get some enlightenment out of.

The band is from Colorado and it had been nine years in between this album and their previous one. It's sort of their 'comeback' record, as it were. It must have been the air or the really good chronic out there that caused this album to come into being. This is some of the most dissonant music that is also highly moody, complicated, classically orchestrated and arranged. The orchestrations of Schoenberg and Saint-Sans come to my mind because of the heavy, percussive feel.

My personal favorite tracks are three and four. They are two instrumental mini-epics that are as thick as the atmosphere the album cover tells at. At twenty-two minutes, combined, it makes up for over a third of the record. The final track, "Kingdom Come," is another huge epic that closes the record out with some of the best Mellotron work this side of King Crimson. High praise, yes, but it is well-warranted. This album is a must have for progressive music fans. Give this underrated band a listen and you might be converted.

Music Information

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User reviews

Average user rating from: 1 user(s)


Overall rating (weighted)		9.0
Musicianship		9.0
Composition		9.0
Experimentation		9.0
Production		9.0
Value		9.0

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0 of 0 people found the following review helpful

Thursday, 17 January 2008

Written by George Bowles - View all my reviews - Top 10 Reviewer


Overall rating (weighted)		9.0
Musicianship		9.0
Composition		9.0
Experimentation		9.0
Production		9.0
Value		9.0

This is one of my favorite obscure prog rock albums in my collection. Sounding a bit like 70's era King Crimson mixed with a variety of John Zorn projects, Thinking Plague's music is a mix of rock, folk, jazz and 20th-century classical music. Usually with female vocals and intelligent lyrics, it will make you seem like your tastes are "distinguished" or even "discerning". Seriously though, this is a classic progressive rock album. Tight compositions and dark atmospheric dream-like fugues beckon your avid listening attention.

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