Fleetburner – Fleetburner

Label: Butler Records     Release date: September 25th, 2020

You like Anathema, Pink Floyd, Muse or Devin Townsend, Ne Obliviscaris and Marduk? Can you imagine which kind of music all those might make together? Me neither.

Yet Fleetburner can do that. This project is instigated by Dutch guitarist/songwriter Kevin Storm who has worked e.g. as session musician for Equilibrium and Shining. He gathered a choice of renowned musicians from the international world of Melodic Death Metal, Black Metal, Folk Metal and Progressive, mostly Scandinavian: In Flames, Dark Tranquillity, Arch Enemy, Kalmah, Madder Mortem. And somehow this insane mixture works.

Naturally, the mix is difficult to describe – there are soft piano/key tunes, Dark Pop/Goth, sinister Death/Black Metal riffs & Blastbeats; highly contagious parts mix with Prog complexity, melancholic atmosphere mixes with heroic-epic bombast and conventional Metal-Hymns with radio play elements. Yep, pretty weird but still oozing Pop appeal, being simultaneously catchy and complex. The songwriting mixes conventions and Prog attitude, e.g. The Breakwater is literally half heavy Metal track, half gentle piano tune.

Hence the output should be seen as Gesamtkunstwerk, a concept album where songs easily blend together despite the variety. The 6th song on the album, “The Passenger”, describes how the main protagonist, the Fleetburner, seeks to save and rescue the heart of those lost, but soon realizes not everyone wants to be saved. A deeply personal and dark journey – just like the album as such.

Btw: Fleetburner was mixed and mastered by Hans Pieters (After Forever, Hail of Bullets).

Line-up:
Guitars / songwriting: Kevin Storm (session for Equilibrium, Shining, a.o.)
Vocals: Ken Simerly
Bass: Peter Iwers (ex-In Flames, ex-CYRHA)
Drums: Tomas Myklebust (Mistur, Galar)
Keys: Veli-Matti Kananen (Kalmah, One Morning Left)
Featuring:
Christopher Amott (Dark Tranquillity, ex-Arch Enemy)
Nils Courbaron (Sirenia)
Masha “Scream” Arkiphova (Arkona)
Agnete M Kirkevaag (Madder Mortem)

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