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Jazz Rock Progressive Rock Jazz Fusion Jazz-Rock
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Your Rating: 9.0
Enjoyable

Additional Info

Year Released
2024
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Catching Fire by Elephant9 delivers an explosive, high-octane sonic landscape that bridges aggressive jazz fusion with heavy, cosmic space rock. Recorded live, the album captures an astonishing sense of dynamic headroom and sheer kinetic energy, centering on Ståle Storløkken’s expansive battery of vintage keyboards—where roaring Hammond organ swells, gritty Fender Rhodes textures, and searing synth leads collide. Joined by Swedish guitar virtuoso Reine Fiske, the soundstage widens dramatically as Fiske’s drenched, fuzz-laden guitar lines interlock with the keys, creating dense, swirling layers of distortion and harmonic feedback. Beneath this heavy wall of sound, Nikolai Hængsle’s thunderous, distortion-edged basslines anchor the low end with muscular precision, while Torstein Lofthus’s ferocious, hyper-articulate drumming drives the tracks forward with complex polyrhythms and crisp, snappy cymbal detail. The overall acoustic presentation feels raw, immersive, and uncompressed, delivering all the punch and spatial separation of a high-volume live performance.