Description

This band is just so creative that they are flat out awesome. Made up of members of Edguy, Squealer, Axel Rudi Pell and…well, just fucking Rick Myathsin…Taraxacum play a very unorthodox but very cool breed of Power Metal that flirts with Heavy Metal, breaks its heart and then smashes it into a million pieces with a metal mallet. They called their first opus Spirit of Freedom, its and album with a tight musicianship and both aggressive and melodic songs. Rick Myathsin screeches like a banshee and can also croon like a part of a heartbroken serenade, showing enough variety to sell goddamn near anything. The drumming is technical and spastic, the melodies are progressive, often varying in mood and tone, and the riffs are molten steel that bites like an angry piranha. People expecting something…well, normal at all…will be in for a shock when they hear this. The band kicks off with a song about getting over an abusive (or so I speculate) girlfriend or spouse in the title track. It’s a soaring, shining Power Metal anthem with a ton of attitude, and the chorus will get stuck in your head for days. I’ve got a whole world that’s not a part of you. Oh, and there's a lot of swearing in this song, too; very unusual for Power Metal. Blast Off follows, and yes, that exclamation point needs to be on there, as this song is a progressive barn-burner with a jazz break, subtly changing riffing that varies the ways it charges for your throat, and a screaming chorus that would be more at home as the whistle on a steamboat, or something. Alone is a quiet ballad that never quite explodes when you think it will, preferring to slowly cook along with a strange kind of grace, a restrained elegance. With other standout moments like the Crimson-Glory-off-their-meds rendition Delirium, the happy jaunt Never Let You Go, with its folksy acoustic break and cooking melodic metal storm building into a ricocheting chorus, and the rumbling, dense closer Think, Taraxacum have forged one hell of a fun, inventive album that I will be spinning for years to come. For some reason people haven’t really heard of this band, but really they’re a gem that you won’t regret if you try out. Get this for your fix of strange, crazy music that just flat out rules. Highly, highly recommended. Track listing: 1. Spirit of Freedom 2. Blast-Off 3. Alone 4. Circle of Fools 5. Delirium (When Will it End) 6. Life Goes On 7. Never Let You Go 8. Believe in You 9. Think