The Appleseed Cast - Peregrine
April 19th, 2006
By Archived Story
The Appleseed Cast is no stranger to concept albums. Their seventh CD, Peregrine, shows yet again why the Lawrence, KS-based quartet continue to do it better than anyone out there.
Peregrine goes like this: in a wooded rural area a deranged father copes with murdering his daughter. She returns in the afterlife as a ghost to haunt him, and he struggles to live with the weight of her death on his shoulders. Later, in a type of mercy killing, a peregrine falcon ends the father’s misery.
Pretty heavy stuff, but what about the music? This time around the Appleseed Cast brings it fervently, aggressively and, at times, delicately.
Singer/guitarist Christopher Crisci’s echoed vocals set the scene over distortion-filled, pounding tracks “Mountain Halo” and “February.” Softer tracks “Ceremony” and “An Orange and a Blue” exhibit the band’s penchant of spaciously layered, arpeggio-laden instrumental tracks that 2001’s Low Level Owl executed to artistic perfection.
In the epic finale, “The Clock and the Storm,” a barrage of knife-cut riffs, screaming guitars, and thundering drums escalates to a breaking point.
Peregrine’s success lays in the amalgamation of their past work to the present, giving the band an evolving identity. To their credit, they have managed to combine pieces of nearly each of their albums to create a culminating work that current fans can enjoy.
And for those who are new to the Appleseed Cast: what are you waiting for?
