People discuss which the modern musical genre is the most persistent, the most surviving. Curiously few of those see Prog rock that way. It has even labeled as old fashioned, and attached to the idea that Sex Pistols so often conveyed the boring old farts. The thing about Prog that is profoundly exciting, and brings about your deepest emotions, is that channels your spirit through a space-time voyage. And surprisingly enough, many bands incorporate it nowadays in their genres, reinventing Prog endlessly. Others, on their hand, keep faithful to the genre’s roots. Malady is an example of that.
Listening to their self-titled album is like a journey through time, to the early phases of Prog, and actually quite a pleasant one, with a great soundtrack as well. Malady successfully revives all the prog legends. That’s how we revive Pink Floyd’s delicacy, Yes’s mastery of sound, or Camel’s melody.
Everything is there, the impetuous guitar arrangements (along the entire record, but especially in “Aarnivalkea” or “Unessakävelijä”) performed by the strong guitar duo create a harmonic sound that often resemble the pastoral fields of the 70’s, in a Jethro Tull kind of way.
Even more visible is the presence of the keyboards that surround you with a tranquil environmental sound, resorting frequently to the famous Minimoog synths that were so popular in the 60’s and 70’s music.
Despite Prog being an instrumental-oriented genre, it never looked aside the vocal aspect of the music. Even though Babak Issabeigloo won’t be reminded by his strong vocal attributes, he certainly has a narrative concern that only fails in the ability of the listener to understand the hardship of agriculture labor in Kantaa taakan maa (which means Bears the burden of March).
Although it doesn’t bring nothing fresh to the table, it satisfies enough in recreating the Prog sound as we all capture it in its essence. Make no mistake about it, this is a true Prog classic album.
8/10
