With an affected, menacing tone that captivates your attention from the get-go, clash bowley’s vocals are haunting and eerie throughout this twelve-song set. Having been involved in music since the ’70s, bowley has been releasing music on a consistent basis for a couple of years now. His output is more than impressive and his latest is called The Quest.
The album starts with “The Hard Path” and I thought the sound design for this was incredible. It sounds as if he puts the distortion through a phaser effect which pans the stereo field. His vocals are deep and the drums sound as if they are coming from an underground tunnel. Wow – what an opener.
“Disobedience” has a killer beat somewhat reminiscent of the more electronic tracks from Radiohead. The song moves about and bowley creates a number of inventive moments here throughout the song. Right around a-minute-and-a-half in bowley creates this descending thread of distortion. Very cool stuff here as bowley is clearly thinking outside of the box and on multiple levels.
“Fate” is another song with some incredible sound design that is ear candy. The drums are very faint at times and if you listen with headphones you will notice they occasionally fade in which was a really cool effect. I thought the lyrics were dark, mysterious and spiritual. bowley sings “I feel the fate descend / There is no compromise / Fate rides, I can’t defend / Only analyze / Fate takes me in its hand and no change I devise / Affects what’s in it’s plan / Even the terror in your eyes.”
BANDCAMP: https://clashbowley.bandcamp.com/album/the-quest
I felt like I was in some kind of religious ceremony when listening to “Draconic.” It was something about the delivery of the vocals on this one that had this effect. On top of that it’s a very rhythmic song with inventive percussion. There are many different vocal styles throughout this album and I really liked this one. There’s a softness to the vocals I found oddly comforting.
One of the most dynamic songs was “Lucky Man” which is a rare song where you could argue bowley sounds exuberant and even joyful.
The mood often veers into unsettling quietness, as heard in “Visionary,” where bowley sings of not wanting to come down from “the infinite black,” leaving the listener to ponder its meaning.
Sometimes you need to slow down a little bit and smell the roses. bowley does that in some way on “I Said You Said” which is a slow burn of a song. One of the highlights was the closer “Follow Me” which contained some of the most unique lyrics. bowley sings “There was no other way there / I had to give my all / Push all my chips on black now / I would fly or I would fall.”
One of the things that struck out to me about this album was the vocal variation. bowley always manages to sound like himself but he expresses it in different ways which are all unique. And that is how you make an album with variation.
Heather Savage
