Nucleus Torn – Golden Age (2011)

Just one year after their excellent release “Andromeda Awaiting”, Nucleus Torn returns with another brilliant excursion into Avant-garde Folk Metal but now with a Progressive twist. Making homage to 70’s Progressive Rock/Metal bands, “Golden Age” is a lush release that will intoxicate you since the first minute with its very intricate and yet exquisite songs.

Being considerably more diverse and exciting than any previous Nucleus Torn release, “Golden Age” delivers six beautifully crafted tracks that showcase the band’s ability in combining stunning musical passages with harmonious vocals. With Fredy Schnyder handling most of the instrumentation and the production work, “Golden Age” sounds as good as you can ever imagine Nucleus Torn sounding.

Opening with the emotional track “Golden Age”, the band goes head first into a 12-minute epic that weaves between Progressive elements and beautiful instrumental passages. Sounding a bit like Anathema in some parts, the band’s tribute to progressive rock greats Genesis, Yes, and King Crimson is very evident, but it has the Nucleus Torn instrumental twist to it. Maria D'Alessandro’s vocals are excellent and provide that nice firm vocal harmony for such a diverse track. The violin of Christine Schüpbach-Käser and the cello of Rebecca Hagmann give that magical edge to this song that many other bands seem to lack in their tribute to older Progressive Rock bands.

The somber “Hunger” follows and delivers a very nice momentum building track that features some excellent flutes near the end. After “Hunger” paved the way for “Silver”, this song has a bit of a Broadway musical feeling due to how the music is mixed a bit behind the male vocals of Patrick Schaad. The string elements and the excellent piano give this song a very dramatic and powerful edge.

In a more up beat and jazzy tempo, “Against” delivers some electric guitars and a nice vocal duel between Maria and Patrick. Very different from the previous songs, but it nicely keeps the momentum of this album flowing and delivers a very powerful atmosphere. Our favorite track of this album has to be the powerful “Ash”. In this song we have some very Bluesy bass guitar line and powerful distorted guitars surrounding Maria’s powerful vocals. The slow passages create the perfect anticipation for another onslaught of distorted riffs just before closing with a very typical 70’s Progressive edge.

Closing the album we have “Death Triumphant” and its 11 minutes of signature Nucleus Torn instrumentation and musical quality. The song is very nicely composed allowing it to flow through some very atmospheric passages that feature a sax paired with solid percussions and some more distorted guitars. There is even some use of harsh vocals in this last track making it very diverse and powerful. However, the transition back into bluesy/jazzy lands is very well crafted and excellently deployed in just the exact moment. It is very surprising that this song is as heavy as it is, and somewhat refreshing in the sense that it will sake any listener up immediately.

As we all expected from Fredy Schnyder, “Golden Age” is an amazing release. Nucleus Torn might have a particular sound to them but they are not afraid of experimenting with it and delivering very aggressive tracks mixed in between some lush atmospheric ones. Every song in this release is very well crafted and delivers very emotional performances by all musicians in the band. If you are looking for something that musically will blow your mind, go and get “Golden Age” as soon as it comes out.

Release: November 25th, 2011

Country: Switzerland