Aktor - Paranoia

Aktor Paranoia cover
Aktor
Paranoia
High Roller Records
2015
5.5
Aktor is the collaborative project, between Chris Black from High Spirits and Dawnbringer and two Finish guys, Jussi Lehtisalo and Tomi Leppanen who have their own parchment and bands they have played in.
 
Thing is, while his other projects were pretty identifiable as metal, even with all their quirks and idiosyncrasies, Aktor, is a very different animal, as it’s rock, at times melodic, a little psychotic and a little psychedelic, but they also bring to mind some (mainly American proto-punk) with influences ranging from the 70s to the early 80s. The sound is quite poppy, in the manner that there are no heavy riffs, but mellow guitar tones, over all sorts of keys... At times I was thinking of a more normalized and melodic early Floyd and several instrumental rock bands from the aforementioned period, but then I was also thinking of Television and what not.
 
I have to give it to the band for daring to be “out there” with this, but this s-punky psychedelia, doesn’t work for me too much, as I am more into the more prog, or completely bonkers styles, when it comes to psych stuff... these songs here are not necessarily bad, but the rather conventional structures, masqueraded as more psychedelic, through the utilization of jazzed up orchestration/ornamentation doesn’t sound that interesting to my ears and I do find the vocals to be rather flat and annoying. It’s a matter of taste I suppose and some people might just love this, but it’s so totally on the brink, that it could go either way, so I suggest to curious people, to check out the band, if they find the description, alluring enough.