Pomegranate Tiger – ‘Boundless’ [Review]
Listening to Boundless, you’d never guess that Pomegranate Tiger is a one-man band. The fact that it is is fucking mind-blowing; Pomegranate Tiger head honcho Martin Andres not only wrote all the music you can hear via Bandcamp below, but also laid down all the drums, guitars, and piano you’ll hear down there as well. Respect is definitely due.
Above all else, Boundless is brutal. Technically, it’s bang on the money; Andres’s playing is super clean, super tight, and relentlessly intense. Album centrepiece Paper Hammers showcases Andres’s softer side, as he makes his way through a showstoppingly beautiful piano-driven piece that is unlike anything I’ve heard since An Evening With John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess. Paper Hammers is worth the price of admission alone.
Post-Paper Hammers, overwhelming waves of brutality ensue once more until Ovation provides an unexpectedly stripped-down climax. A gorgeous and dramatic string quartet piece, it marks Martin Andres out as a masterful and appropriately boundless composer. Given Boundless‘s main billing as a prog-metal album, it’s a real and rewarding curveball.
Overall, Boundless leaves me in two minds. On one side lie the above three paragraphs of positivity. On the other lies the fact that prog-metal fans are likely to be divided when it comes to the metal parts that make up eight of Boundless‘s ten tracks. For some, neuron-crushing heaviness is all that matters, while others are enamoured with vast dynamic ranges and room to breathe.
Personally, I crave the latter. It comes down to the timeless divide between technique and compositional skills on one hand, and soul and feel on the other. As much as I love technical and progressive music, Boundless largely left me out in the cold – except on Paper Hammers and Ovation, which I urge everyone reading this to check out, regardless of where you fall in the technique-feel debate.
If you disagree with the above, don’t skip to the comments and compose a hate letter just yet. The last time I was this divided over an album, I was listening to Passion and Warfare by Steve Vai. On first listen, I felt the same way I do as I write these words – but when I picked Passion and Warfare up again a few months later, it immediately became one of my favourite albums of all time.
Boundless, for me, is most likely going to prove an acquired taste – but I’m more than sure it’ll be one worth acquiring.
TMMP RATING: 88% (Because acquired taste or not, Boundless is still an immense achievement.)
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