YELLOW BRICK ROAD – “Futuremental”
brand new album out on 12/12/12
1. Welcome To The Scene
2. Poison In My Well
3. (Down The) Line Of Lies
4. Seek-And-Hide
5. Every Kiss A Treason
6. Your Spite
7. Crate Of Your Creator
8. Nocturne / Fight Your Fears
9. Road To The Tournament
10. Get A Life
11. Take It On The Chin
12. Witch’s Blue
Yan Maximovich – vocals
Kidas Suhovey – drums
Pavel Velichko – guitar
Ilya Davidovich – bass
Lyrics by Dmitry M. Epstein
“Welcome to the scene, you’re future king of everything…
You know you’re mental, do you? You’re not crazy”
Twelve is a happy number, and while the world is going crazy about its own end, as predicted by Maya, Yellow Brick Road, the premiere Belarusian rock band, have an optimistic outlook on shapes of things to come and release their fourth studio album before the Apocalypse, on 12/12/12. Containing 12 (of course!) tracks, “Futuremental” is a mature work which belies the players’ just-out-of-their-teens age, a rumination on mortality and moral ways of this world that, perhaps, deserves a demise but needs to be forgiven for the sake of fun. That the record starts and signs off with songs whose titles begin with the worldly letter W, “Welcome To The Scene” and “Witch’s Blue”, is hardy a coincidence. Yet, in fact, it is, because the latter cut, powerful blues, has been written as an afterthought at the eleventh hour.
Good six months in the works, with its final mix delivered shortly before the CD went to press, “Futuremental” has quickly outgrown its hard rock origins, pretty sharp at the demo stage, and, heaviness intact, attained a modern edge. As jazz sway, electronic buzz and orchestral sweep enveloped memorable riffs – “flesh out your skeleton”, goes the philosophical “Get A Life” – great attention was paid to detail, so the most rewarding experience comes with one’s headphones on. In Blakean terms (spot the poet’s quote in there as well as ever-elusive piano), the record features songs of experience rather than those of playful innocence which was characteristic for the group’s earlier hits like “S.Y.S.T.R.N.R.”, while its psychedelic sheen and recurring, multi-layered lyrical themes work miracles on subconscious level and keeps the focus sharp and clean.
There’s a lot of juxtaposition in the infectious grooves of “Futuremental” – textural, conceptual, emotional… “Show me what you got. Are you gonna play God?” This question, poised in “Take It On The Chin”, is one of many raised here to provoke many a thought. Yellow Brick Road don’t tread on divine cobbles of their name to the Crystal Palace where a tournament takes place, or to the sewers where the action is, they take the listener on a personal, individual journey to a place beyond, to a higher ground. That’s what their new album is about.
Produced, mixed and mastered by the band’s drummer Kidas Suhovey and prefaced by the single “Line Of Lies”, “Futuremental” is here to stay, as suggests this teasing trailer.
Press inquiries: dmitry@epstein.to
