Maserati are back with their first album in five years and they return in style, as restless and supercharged as ever. Following 2015 release, Rehumanizer, (review here), Enter The Mirror is the seventh full length album of the quartet composed by Coley Dennis, Matt Cherry, Chris McNeal and Mike Albanese from Athens, Georgia, land of psychedelic rock and synth rock (just think about REM or Deerhunter to have an idea).
The new album marks the band’s twentieth anniversary and for the occasion they worked together with producer John Congleton, known for his recent works with Explosions in the Sky and Swans, with ex-REM drummer Bill Berry, Owen Lange, and Alfredo Lapuz Jr.
Maserati have always found new and exciting ways to blend their shuddering bassline with urgent and refined synths and the new album is no different, but they also go beyond those sonorities adding a brilliantly pursuing electro sound.
Spanning over about 40 minutes long, Enter The Mirror has all the ingredients you need to let you fly.
The spacecraft takes off with a marvelous intro titled ‘2020’ that with its “spacy”, ambient soundscapes, offer a cosmic start while vocoder lyrics help you to settle into this new world. The gigantic shuddering bassline that drives the following ‘A Warning In The Dark’ is like a cold shower on a hot summer afternoon: refreshing, powerful, pursuing, perfectly executed. What a great return!
I particularly like the tense atmosphere of ‘Welcome To The Other Side’; can you see the world from your spacecraft? It’s all dark outside and those small dots are the planets you are flying towards to in close proximity to a number of asteroids placed there by insistent guitar ripples and the flashing lights are powerplants exploding. This song offers the best space ride through the most compelling mélange of adrenalized guitars, incredible pop-synths and triumphant post-punk drumbeats mixed with up-tempo sequencers. The robotic voice over buzzy electric sequencing is brilliant and the combo with the music is just overwhelming. It’s probably the darkest moment of the entire album.
The compelling album closer, ‘Wallwalker’, is just perfect: it’s rock, it’s electronic, it’s dancefloor for everyone that wants to venture a walk on this wall of sounds that keeps you moving with style. ‘Wallwalker’ embraces the best moments of the entire album and it gently slow down while you land from a journey through a monumental accomplishment.
High five Maserati!
