Musical Madness Magazine's Look at Cosmic Indulgence's "Heterochromia"

[twoscompany]

I'm calling it right now: powder blue and crimson red business suits, complimented with vintage Italian Graffitis, are going to be in vogue starting today.

Its the first album by Cosmic Indulgence since the departure of Nariko Lunae and Richard St. Vier, and the first featuring Sabo, resulting in a quartet. Or maybe we should call them the Fabulous Four. The fans were eating it up even before the doors opened to Libra Music, the first official release site for the new album. It sold out within ten minutes, an absolutely impressive feat; no doubt other stores will find their stock vanishing in a similar fashion, and with good reason.

Of course, this is a concept album, the type of lofty music which should elude normal audience with whatever ideas it might exude. The type of album where the bulk of the music is instrumentals, and upon hearing it the label executives birth snarling, apoplectic kittens which are then sicced on the offensive piece and torn to shreds, thus either never seeing the light of day or being released piecemeal or incomplete. Its an album that should be more suited for a label like Virgo, because Pride Records' more mainstream audiences just wouldn't "get" it.

Thank goodness that's not the case here. Heterochroma is certainly conceptual, even astral as is natural for a band with such a name, but thankfully most of it is accessible to even the most average of music novices. It is, at its heart, a love story - the story of a love between people and a love between a person and the place they've adopted as their home as they fight to save it. And, its the love story of Cosmic Indulgence's own bonds towards each other - whether or not their members still grace Pride Records with their presence. There's definitely a touch of sad goodbyes for Nariko and Richard, who we all will miss, and wish them the best.

No need to resent the newcomers, though. By that I mean Sabo, whose drums are especially fast and furious on "Ghosts of my Mind", and more surprisingly, Garnet Gneiss getting front and center and taking up main vocal duties for a fair amount of the songs which have lyrics. Her keytar instrumental, "Heteroxygene", along with the Gneiss-penned "The Clouds" are standout material, as is her narration on the opening, operatic "Eve of War". "Five Years" is a heartfelt melody for all four, as we find that everyone in Cosmic Indulgence can, indeed, sing - watch out, Flashstep, wait until they learn how to dance! - and as seen by Terry Ward almost completely manning instruments solo on "Speed of Life" and lighting the metaphorical fire under the final, phoenix-like climax of "Finally (Contact)" alongside normally-pianist Mei Ren, the band as a whole is capable of more than the sum of its parts.

The band's outfits for the album - and from what can be seen, their style for the dates they will surely be playing - is one of utter unity, attuned to one another and yet unique to each bandmember (each member, in one close-up of their faces within the album sleeve, have differently-colored heterochomic contacts in their eyes - no doubt a commentary on the new fashion of musicians changing their eye colors on a lark for publicity as opposed to art) in the way they wear their carefully-tailored pieces. Here's to hoping they wear these suits - and continue to make such incredible music - for a long time to come.