MARQUETTE: Into The Wild (PROGRESSIVE ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

"Into The Wild" is a cult movie. Adapted from Jon Krakauer's book "Journey To The End Of Loneliness", it tells the true story of Christopher McCandless, a young American student who decides to cross his country and go into exile in the middle of the forest to learn how to live in harmony with nature, far from the modern society in which he grew up. Sean Penn's award-winning work has made its mark on the cinema. The cinema, and also Markus Roth, German guitarist and keyboardist of the bands Horizontal Ascension and Force Of Progress. So much so that the musician, after releasing "Human Reparation", his first opus in 2015, decided to take inspiration from this movie to release his second album under the name Marquette which could not be called otherwise than "Into The Wild".

Resolutely progressive, this second album, almost instrumental, ventures into many regions. 'Seven Doors' evokes progressive metal sounds a la Porcupine Tree, 'Alexander Supertramp' has a cinematic aspect, while we find traces of jazz in 'Into The Homeland' or more symphonic rock on 'Portrait Of Men'. So we are in the presence of a rich and diversified opus, enjoying experimenting with different sounds, often technical, always cleanly executed. The most interesting moments are those with a jazz feel, such as the saxophone solo by Robin Mock in 'Seven Doors', preceded by a keyboard solo carried by a groovy bass. In the same vein, the first third of 'Into The Homeland' offers a very good jazzy passage with the return of the saxophone.

Maurizio Menendez's vocals, on the other hand, remain in the background. Present only on the two shortest songs ('Criminal Kind' and 'Portrait Of Men'), it plays more the role of an instrument like any other, with only a few interventions. And that's where the problem lies. We can never repeat it enough: instrumental music is a delicate and difficult exercise. If vocals brings coherence to a piece and tends to refocus debate and attention, especially in the progressive genre, it also provides a framework for the music.

Here, we are at the heart of a one-hour opus with long formats, 'Seven Doors' and 'Into The Homeland' reaching 14 and 19 minutes respectively. With no vocal lines to liven things up, boredom and weariness are often there. Even on shorter songs like 'Alexander Supertramp', some melodies go round and round and are repetitive. On the longer tracks, the sections sometimes follow one another without any real connection and don't make you want to continue the listening.

Technically, however, there is nothing to say about the performance of the musicians who remain impeccable whatever the register interpreted and the difficulty of the different parts. In short, we could say that nothing is bad, but nothing is really good either. Despite sometimes excellent ideas, "Into The Wild" lacks strong ideas and dynamism to really engage the listener's interest throughout the album. - Official website

MARQUETTE

INTO THE WILD

PROGRESSIVE PROMOTION

PROGRESSIVE ROCK