Kindler – Cosmic Revelations


Kindler Cosmic Revelations album cover ghostcultmag

Kindler are a three-piece progressive rock band from Asheboro, NC who are certain to make an impact within their genre as they grow. With their début album Cosmic Revelations (Self-Released) the band showcases why they are worth paying attention to.

The main thing that stands out on this album is how talented each of the members are. First and foremost, this album has some of the best bass playing I have heard in ages. The bass guitar and lead vocals are both handled by Cameron Fitzpatrick, who showcases some impressive vocals. He gets a lot of time to show his vocal range and depth on this album, hitting some impressive high notes throughout the track-list. The other two members are brothers (drums) and Stephen Wiley (guitar), both also provide backing vocals, which are used to create strong vocal harmonies at key moments on the album. All instruments are played with a great deal of technical ability, which is important for the prog-rock genre.

Stand out tracks on the album include the space rock styled ‘Morning Ours’, the somber and emotional ‘Iron Heart’ which carries echoes of a softer Opeth track [think their Damnation album], progressive metal track ‘Eden’, and ‘Scars’ which is a personal favourite with focus on strong vocal harmonies, simple percussion, and acoustic guitar. One thing that kept this album from getting stale is the mix of styles on showcase here. Each track brought another aspect of the bands sound to the table, keeping things dynamic and exciting. Tracks that tried to be more progressive in style did drag on a bit, namely ‘Remembrance’ and ‘Morning Ours’; each being 6+ minutes long, felt like they could have been shaved a bit without losing any charm. Overall the song writing is a strong point, whereas nothing really felt that memorable or new, everything was solid and nothing felt like filler.

While this album doesn’t tread any new ground, it succeeds in ways I didn’t initially expect from this band. It managed to be enjoyable from start to finish, and ended up having something for everyone due to its diverse sound. This makes it an easy recommendation for most if not all music fans. This band is worth keeping an eye on, and leaves endless ways to expand their sound. It should be interesting to see where they go next.

7.0/10

MATTHEW BLANCHARD