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Greensleeves: The Elephant Truth
Greensleeves The Elephant Truth new music review

Greensleeves: The Elephant Truth

Progressive Rock/Metal
Rating: 4.5/5.0

Independent/Self-promotion
www.myspace.com/greensleevesbrazil
Review: Craig Hartranft,  10.14.2009

If anything, Brazil's Greensleeves have enduring perseverance and genuine creativity. The Elephant Truth, their first full-length release of progressive metal, comes nearly 16 years of challenge and perspiration. All bands speak of the blessing and curse of the journey, but how many make it to their destination? With The Elephant Truth, Greensleeves has arrived in triumph with an epic work.

I warn you: it will take more than a quick spin to digest the breadth and depth of The Elephant Truth as it is both musically and lyrically profound. The album itself clocks in at over 70 minutes, and the work is divided into 23 movements. Greensleeves, formerly a classic heavy metal, bends genres into new forms throughout this disc using everything from melodic metal to melodic rock to thrash for excellent results. It's unlikely that your will be bored as Greensleeves moves quickly whilst weaving this tapestry. Though some will find these many divisions less accessible than say a 20 minute Dream Theater piece, it's still a compelling and honest presentation.

Lyrically, The Elephant Truth is a concept album. 'The songs tell, nonlinearly and abstractly, the mental journey of a man in a coma. The storyline was inspired by the late John Godfrey Saxe's poem The Blind Men and The Elephant, and mixes ideas from that poem to the life of the main character, in metaphors about the diversity of truth.' Strange and heady stuff, but the whole is worth the listen.

The combination of an intelligent, well presented theme with masterful composition makes The Elephant Truth a sterling example of classic and provocative progressive metal. Very recommended.

In Short

The combination of an intelligent, well presented theme with masterful composition makes The Elephant Truth a sterling example of classic and provocative progressive metal.

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