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We’ve all heard about the challenge of the sophomore release.
The second outing for many bands can be a bit of a let down.
At least there’s always that potential. Thankfully it’s not
always the case. Witness the second release for the band Ricochet
entitled Zarah – A Teartown Story. This second outing comes
a full nine years after their first recording entitled Among
the Elements which received pretty good reviews back in 1996.
***
Hailing out of Hamburg, Germany, Ricochet has been together
for ten years and consists of Christian Heise (vocals), Heiko
Holler (guitars), Jan Keimer (drums), Hans Strenge (bass)
and Bjoern Tiemann (keyboards). And it’s clear listening to
this second release, that the ten years of playing together
has really honed their chops. Ricochet is a mighty tight outfit.
***
Zarah – A Teartown Story is a concept album sung in English
focusing on the tragic and short lived life of a young girl
named Zarah. As such the story line involves a host of difficult
issues including child abuse, murder and suicide. It’s clear
that Ricochet are a thinking band. But as the story line develops
like all good lyrical compositions we’re able to extrapolate
analogies that apply to difficult situations in other contexts.
Given the ‘heavy’ nature of the story this recording avoids
an oppressively gloomy tone. A full 72 minutes in length there’s
lots of room for a multitude of musical workouts as a few
of the tracks are around the ten-minute length and the CD
ends with a thirteen-minute piece entitled “A New Days Rising.”
The track is listed as eighteen-minutes and forty-four seconds,
but actually seems to complete at thirteen-minutes before
running silent for two and then returning with a lush keyboard
instrumental for the remaining four minutes. ***
Musically, Ricochet clearly draws on a prog-metal style
made popular by bands like Dream Theatre. By that I mean prog-metal
bands not afraid to incorporate a strong keyboard sound. Make
no mistake the guitars rule here, and they bring lots of sonic
variety it’s not all crunch-crunch. Those keyboards I mentioned
not only perform stellar support work providing a majestic
backdrop for many of the compositions; there are any number
of times where they jump to the fore, especially in a couple
of instrumentals to provide some great sounds. I guess when
you sum it up, Ricochet are not just one-style, they’re able
to infuse a variety of genre elements, and avoid the prog-metal
pitfall of all the music sounding the same after a few minutes.
Ricochet keep changing it up and that’s a credit to not only
their compositional skills but their arranging techniques
as well. ***
Obviously fans of progressive-metal and specifically
the Dream Theatre style will thoroughly enjoy Ricochet. But
even for more symphonic minded listeners there is much to
appreciate with Zarah – A Teartown Story. For those moments
where something a little heavier is desired, this is a perfect
disc to satisfy that craving. ***
Jerry Lucky
April/23/2006
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