Airbag - All Rights Removed - 2011
“Second album from Norwegian atmospheric progressive rock band Airbag”
intro
On the website of their label Karisma Records you can read the following introduction to the band;
“The five-piece band from Oslo Norway has been playing together in various constellations for years but Airbag in its present form was born in 2005. Airbag has managed to create their own unique sound with elements of classic rock, prog rock, chill and jazz. Their music is influenced by artist from a wide range of genres, from Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree to Talk Talk, Radiohead and Marillion.”
In the year 2009 Airbag surprised the symphonic rock scene with their fine debut album “Identity”. On that album they played a kind of mellow atmospheric rock with a reference to Pink Floyd. Now there is the successor entitled “All Rights Removed”.
line-up
Anders Hovdan - bass; Asle Tostrupr- vocals, guitar, percussion; Bjørn Riis - guitar, vocals; Henrik Fossum - drums; Jørgen Hagen - keyboards
review
The first thing you will notice is that most of the tracks of this second album are longer than the ones on their debut album “Identity”. There are only six tracks on this album; “All Rights Removed”, “White Walls”, “The Bridge”, “Never Coming Home”, “Light Them All Up” and “Homesick I-III”.
The best thing about an Airbag album is that it has consistency. This also counts for “All Rights Removed”. As listener you can enjoy the album as one long piece of music. You can float away on their music. This is also the reason that I will not review the album track by track.
In the first five tracks “All Rights Removed”, “White Walls”, “The Bridge”, “Never Coming Home” and “Light Them All Up” you can hear a band that has not lost their unique sound. The atmosphere of the music is darker than on “Identity”. The ballad “Never Coming Home” has beautiful and spacey keyboard strings and melodic guitar parts with references to Pink Floyd and Camel. You can drift away on this relaxed music. The song seamlessly flows into the short track “Light Them All Up” which ends with a breathtaking melody on the violin.
“Homesick I-III” (17:22) is the magnum opus of this album. It has a slow opening with acoustic guitar. The tension of the music slowly builds up to a kind of climax with a long melodic guitar solo. Then you can enjoy a beautiful mellow keyboard part which reminds me of the sound on Pink Floyd's album “Which you were here”. Then the tension of the music is swelling again to the next melodic guitar solo ... and so on. This long diverse piece of music has wonderful melodies. Only for this track you have to buy this album!