It is clearly the highlight on the album.Ĭloser, Megalomaniac, starts with a simple and very uninteresting guitar riff that goes on and on and on. There is a sudden break that isn't a break, there are some variations in pace, there's a real wall of sound, this is Airbag at their best. Halfway Riis' fabulous guitar appears and lifts the song farther up for the remaining four minutes. Tostrup's singing here is very good with a real melody to sing instead of filling in a soundscape like in the former songs. Sunsets starts with a simple, uninteresting drum sound over which long stretched keys and guitar chords are played with some sound effects before the vocals start, this time with some pace. Fortunately the song has a fine characteristic Airbag guitar solo but it's a shame they let it fade out just like that. The musical bridge however is very simple again and doesn't captivate.
Into The Unknown has another repetitive intro but here the vocal lines are much more appealing with a fine chorus and a somewhat uplifting vocal sound. Tostrup doesn't have a very expressive voice but here he also has a rather non-descript melody which proves hard to make interesting. To my ears the vocals are unexpressive and therefore boring. Opener Machine And Man starts with a repeating sample of a low sound on which the whole song is built. Four of the six tracks on the album have epic lengths, clocking-in at well over eight minutes, but musically none of these songs really deserve that length. The main reason is that far too little happens in the more than 48 minutes that the album lasts. That puzzling feeling has gone now, but I still cannot help but be underwhelmed. Of course I tried it several times more, but each time I wondered what I had been listening to: a soundscape, a film score, an exercise at a music school or background music for the mall? While listening, my mind wandered off long before the record ended, quite disappointed in what the album offered. I was simply curious as to how the new album would sound, and whether the two former members would be missed.
Airbag is nowadays Riis on guitars, keyboards and background vocals, Henrik Fossum on drums, and Asle Tostrup on lead vocals, keyboards and programming. I knew that that the original line-up had almost halved for this one. So, I was really looked forward to listening to Airbag's fifth album entitled A Day At The Beach. But Looking at the scores on several prog websites and the review by my colleague Andy Read, it was another pleasant record, so I'll give it a listen in the near future. Their 2016 album, Disconnected, somehow passed me by. I also tried All Rights Removed to find out I liked that album as well. I really liked that one, especially the long and wide guitar solos by Bjorn Riis and the overall melancholic mood of the songs. To me the latter was the case with Airbag, the Norwegian proggers whom I got to know by means of their third album The Greatest Show On Earth. And every now and then there are albums on offer of artists you like, or think you like, although they are not favourites per se but too good a chance to let go by.
Most of the times though, there are albums of lesser-known or unknown artists which makes it always a challenge to start to listen. As a reviewer at you're sometimes lucky to lay your hands on a pre-release copy of a new album from one of your favourite artists.
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