Review: DRONE: Doors of Perception – An Instant Classic Minx That Will Haunt/Hook You

Drone

They open strong with the first measures of the song Antic Disposition.  The first song on the album and it is rough, edgy, dark rock and roll- full of anger and bitterness.  I sit up and look at the computer screen and my eyes widen.  These guys sent me an email out of the blue and asked me to review their new album, Doors of Perception.  They asked me ? WTF!  I should be begging them to read my review.   Antic Disposition is a great song.  I am stunned at how great.

Remember their name. Remember their name because it’s like those pilotless planes that carry hellfire missiles and blow you away before you can put your Toyota Truck into drive.  DRONE.  DRONE. DRONE.   THIS IS DRONE and they are the very best heavy prog band of the 21st century.

There are only 324 people following them on Facebook?  Are you friggin’ kidding me?  They must be the most intelligent 324 in the entire world.   I will say this again so you can read it again and maybe maybe comprehend what I am trying to tell you:  DRONE is the very best heavy prog band of the 21st century.  I know this after one song.   Talent of this caliber does not fade.

Oh fuck.  The second song starts with a speech

“Society is a vast conspiracy to make us a single self
and to escape this self we must somehow become
detached from all those habits and values and attitudes that
society has encrusted us in”

And the Axe comes roaring in with a great progression right on top of the speech , a heavy slam over top of the words, and I’m already so fucking sold on this band….I mean, WTF!  TOOL  should be envious because this is DRONE and they are no apprentice.
The album is  called Doors of Perception and was created by a three man Danish Prog band. I swear to God I’m flying to Denmark to see this band play LIVE.

“Take your cash up your ass” – Cassandra Syndrome, DRONE

I feel like the guy who found the Hope Diamond.  I want to scream. I want to dance, I want to laugh in hysterics.  Where do I even begin to describe how powerful, astute, and perfectly absorbing DRONE’s music is?  Track Three begins with more spoken word…the song is entitled Cassandra Syndrome and some guy is talking about his store and I’m like..what the hell, why does this fit in perfect with the groove?  I’m losing myself in this…it’s a  hard Prog   Rock brainwash.    I will write their name down again for you:  DRONE  I will also write this word:  EPIC

Track 4 is Carmen Vernale and it has a wicked groove and the baritone vocals are Earth Shattering-  Im not kidding you..this album is  DAUGHTRY on Mescaline.    This is Creed, Tool, NIN and  Porcupine Tree, stirred together, boiled and poured over your confused Schism-starved brain.  This is Shinedown meets The Pineapple Thief.   This is DRONE and they are the very best heavy prog band of the 21st century.

They rock hard,  they send a message, their music reflects the madness in our society, the futility of our empty lives- under the control, always under the control of our Corporate puppet masters..

“Open up my vein to life
while your doing what you will”  - from the song Intuition

Rasmus Sjøgren

The broken staccato vocals that match the beat on Turmoil, with harmonies up a third, and then a fifth is captivating, it’s a supremely clever arrangement..it FEELS like TURMOIL!  The lyrics are straight-forward, simple.. yet the words race at you through the music. I already know that by the tenth time you are spinning TURMOIL you will be singing along to every word, shouting out every note.  Then you will go to their concert and we will all sing TURMOIL together, fists raised high to the beat…first it will be a few hundred fans….then a few thousand fans….and then DRONE will fill the sports stadiums, I PROMISE YOU  they will fill the stadiums..and we will all be as one…the music of DRONE surging through our shattered souls.

Every song…is better than the song before…there is no let down, no filler song to bring the album down.   DRONE is too good for that.   This album is arranged to elevate you, produced to watch you, watch you. God damn Minx. This is DRONE.

As I write the songs fly past with a venom. Singer/guitarist/ songwriter Rasmus Sjøgren is now telling a dark tale on Elevate Freedom.

Who cares if I’m not first. Who cares if am not
Who cares if I’m not first. Who cares if am not (like you)

Rasmus Cederlund

This fascinating story unfolds and there is evil within it..at its center, its core..it follows you with every note, attacking with a vengence. More bold words jump out at you:

Unless I bring out the things God wished me to conceal,
she will show me how this can come so far down – come down, come down, come down, come down, come down, come down.
“The Ladies Live From His Palm – His Foe Levels”
And down we flow. To the underworld where the dragon flies and green traces of acid lie on the ground

DRONE is heroin, DRONE is Steven Wilson in chains, DRONE is Syd Barrett before they took his Floyd toy away.  DRONE IS THE 21ST CENTURY SCHIZOID MAN

The song becomes a gentle, tender symphonic concerto, the violins rising and falling...who cares, who cares...this music, this remarkable band, this DRONE has hooked me.

And so we come to the final track, Garmonbozi where DRONE ties it all together..the speech, I know this speech

Morten Nygaard

from somewhere, a movie, wan’t this a movie? It is long, way too long, yet not long enough…the music is like a suffering,  a painful foreboding- an adult discovering he is now and forever stripped of his childhood innocence . DRONE is a reckoning.   Kurt Cobain is watching from a perch high above us, and the music  is twisted and burnt..a scorched Blackfield. I read the lyrics and laugh- they have brought it all together, DRONE is repeating key sentences from earlier songs, and then they have the audacity, the self-awareness to write THIS:

What if my songs will hit you
you can´t control this they´re timeless
and when their essence one day will seize you
It will please me.

The music ends and the silence in the studio is oppressive, the weight of the air lays upon my shoulders.

And I am suffocating on the silence.

Rating:  ♦♦♦♦ EPIC

_____________________________

THIS IS DRONE 
Rasmus Sjøgren – Vocals, guitars, keys, samples and drum programming.
Rasmus Cederlund – Drums and drum programming.
Morten Nygaard – Bass.

Band Photographs by  Katja Michaelsen 2011

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