TRANSILIENCE - Mouthful Of Buildings
Spookey Ruben reinvented pop music all by himself in the mid-Nineties, with songs like Running Away, Wendy McDonald and These Days Are Old becoming instant hits on MTV in an age when they still aired alternative music. What many people didn't know was that Spookey has a serious heavy metal background, which made him release in 1990 Mouthful Of Buildings with his band Transilience.
Now it would be cool already if this were only a curiosity, but then Spookey already showed the same sense of genius in his beginnings. Digging deep into the progressive metal genre, Transilience can be seen at the same level as bands like WatchTower, Sieges Even, Anacrusis or fellow Canadians VoiVod, except that Transilience were even more crossover, with occasional nods to Faith No More respectively Mr Bungle. Spookey has a very clear if not yet as melodic voice on this album, but it's instantly recognisable for fans of his excellent work. Another surprise is the complex yet accessible song writing by a Spookey who probably wasn't even an adult yet when the album was recorded.
In times where prog metal became more and more polished, it's a true revelation to discover a band like Transilience that seamlessly combined prog, metal, pop, jazz and otherworldly fun into this exceptional CD. Too bad it's been buried so long, or rather quite a shame.
Fortunately this is timeless music that fans of truly original metal music must come to enjoy. Especially those people who were into that kind of music back in the early Nineties and underwent the same musical development like Spookey Ruben.