The Red Masque's Feathers for Flesh

Philadelphia's The Red Masque are a gothic-colored collision of avant-prog and psychedelic influences. Their new album, Feathers For Flesh, is their most accomplished release to date, featuring an exponetial growth in both songwriting skill and studio proficiency.

Another disclosure: The Red Masque's singer, Lynnette Shelley provided excellent backing vocals on the debut Church of Hed CD. But hey, I wouldn't have asked her to sing on it, nor would I write about her band if they didn't warrant it.

What sets TRM apart from other bands wearing the prog banner is the general taste of material. A lot of prog, especially that from the avant-prog camp, wallows in this modern classical sludge of complexity; never stooping to grace the listener with a simple, memorable melody or powerful groove.

Or as David St. Hubbins put it, there's a fine line between clever and stupid.

Feathers For Flesh shows that TRM is on their way of mastering that ultimate skill in producing quality progressive music: contrasting the complex against the simple; contrasting the dissonant against the melodious. Let alone that a sense of psychedelia, color and danger totally permeates the mood. No dull music school readings here.

The highlights of the album for me are Yellow are his Opening Eyes and Beggars & Thieves. The latter song especially shows TRM at their most tuneful; it has almost classic folk melodies, giving Shelley a chance to show her vocal range and depth of expression. Special props to drummer Vonorn and guitarist Kirash Emami for their quality engineering work. This album sounds stunning; an accomplishment considering the amount of bizarre instrumentation on the disc. Feathers For Flesh is definitely recommended for folks who need to be convinced there is still quality, inventive, and progressive music coming out of the Prog genre.