Airbag
A Day at the Beach

There is some really strong progressive rock and metal music from Norway, and Airbag happens to be a progressive band from that nation of fiords and generally annoying people. I did review an album from their guitarist Bjørn Riis last year and was very unimpressed, but Airbag is a band, so he isn’t alone this time. Airbag has released four albums before this one, and since the fourth a lot of things has happened for them with members leaving and they are now a trio. According to the band becoming a trio has forced them to rethink some of their creative aspects, that would be a good case considering that I think all bands needs to be forced to re-evaluate what they do from album to album as it will otherwise just lead to boring repetition. If the cover of this album is anything to go on it should be great, probably better than a sunny day at the beach – I kind of hate those.

Fans of the band should recognise their guitar driven signature sound, they have for this album also taken new inspirations from electronica of the eighties, some new wave stuff and movie scores. This should lead to a combination of ethereal soundscape and that signature guitar driven sound. I guess it kind of does, Pink Floyd is a clear reference. Is it not weird that the term progressive is used to describe a style rather than actually describe something that is progressive, this band fit the style of Genesis, Pink Floyd and such bands but I don’t hear them coming up with anything of their own on this album. The six tracks fit the format well and are kid of predictable, well-produced with adequate vocals – really strong craftsmanship.

I think that A Day at the Beach is fairly good, not great, not brilliant, not progressive, not exciting, just good. You can listen to it and probably like it, but it fails to make an impression. I have played through this album at least a dozen times now and actually spent more time with it than I do with most albums, and it still doesn’t leave any impression – when I don’t listen to it I can’t recall any of the songs, it is that anonymous. It is too good to give a lower rating but that is really the only positive thing I can say about it. Shaman Elephant on the same label is a Norwegian prog band with a release this year that is way better, the prog metal band Mindtech is another one but there are probably a whole lot more.

The cover is probably the best aspect of this album, it is quite interesting and progressive. Too bad the album itself isn’t as good. It isn’t bad but I can’t see that it will appeal to many other than the ones that are already sold on the band’s music. I have noticed that many reviews on the web are also slightly less positive than they usually are so it can’t that great. It is better than wasting time on a beach somewhere but not really a great album, it works but not much more than that.

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