Diagonal: Recommend to prog gourmets!

Diagonal is a prog band from Brighton, UK. Thunderous and hypnotic, euphoric and brutal, Diagonal is uncompromising in its approach and fearless in the creation of music and blend prog, metal, psych,  jazz, krautrock and metal into an intense and explosive mixture which seems to belong to neither past, present nor future, yet somehow sounds like all three. Their third album is entitled Arc, the album maintains their effortlessly chameleonic shifts through Canterbury scene-indebted progressive rock, pulsing motoric and the spaced-out jazz expression, but where it really thrives is in its sense of spontaneity, imbibed from the quick and organic way that it came about. No You Tube link yet, so Bandcamp is the place to listen.

Arc is Diagonal most organic sounding effort to date. Noticeable changes have been made to the sound, with an increased presence of both vocals and acoustic instrumentation. The track Stars Below sees the band explore their interests in jazz tinged folk, whereas The Vital ends up somewhere in orbit around Talk Talk’s later work or an ECM recording. In contrast the tracks The Spectrum Explodes and 9-Green boast tight grooves that shift and break as synths, sax and distorted guitar come to the fore.

Diagonal surprisingly appears on the stage in 2008 like an insider’s tip. This Brighton/UK-based band is consisting of seven musicians in the mid-twenties who obviously have the preference on 1970s prog music. Accompanied by a 7” production the eponymous debut album was released by the Rise Above Records label. The songs are full of references to well-known prog dinosaurs but not getting dusty though. Based on a rich instrumentation and a sophisticated songwriting Diagonal is blending nearly all styles the genre has to offer. Far away from any mainstream this band is recommend to prog gourmets.

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