Review of "Awaken the Stone King" at Number of the Blog

It seems appropriate that my first album review for the new year happens to be of an album that was released on the first day of the new year. (OK, Keith actually made it available on New Year’s Eve, but the official release date is 1-1-11.) It’s also one of the albums I have been eagerly awaiting ever since I became familiar with Keith’s music some time last year. My excitement spiked heavily when I interviewed Keith, as he was not only a great, under-appreciated artist, but a nice guy to boot, and so I’ve kept in contact with him since. I was starting to worry that I might be over-hyping this album to myself, building up some unreal expectations.

As it turned out, I had no reason to worry. Mr. Merrow put his skills to good use once again, creating some of his strongest, most epic material to date with Awaken The Stone King, thus kicking off 2011 with a bang. The new album heavily features Keith’s two new Bernie Rico Jr. custom guitars, which sound great, and Keith gives them a solid workout with his technically proficient riffing and epic solos. There is more of an emphasis on soloing on Awaken The Stone King, too, although by no means does it indicate a huge shift in sound. Instead, it’s simply an expansion of the Merrow sound, which really goes hand in hand with the improved production present; everything sounds weightier, with more overall depth.

Make no mistake, this is a Keith Merrow album, and as such it is filled with heavy, technical riffs and shifting tempos. Keith is definitely at the top of his game, mixing mid-paced riffs (as seen on ‘Heart Of The Sea Nymph’) with much faster riffing (such as on ‘People Of The Bog’). He sprinkles in a lot of melodic flourishes, which helps keep things interesting and memorable, and as I mentioned above, there are more solos on Awaken The Stone King than on Keith’s previous releases. There are even a couple of guest solos, one from newcomer Gord Olson (on ‘Beheading The Manticore’), and one from Nevermore’s Jeff Loomis (on ‘Heart Of The Sea Nymph’), and both solos are killer, but Keith certainly holds his own.

Like any great instrumental album, Awaken The Stone King stays fresh because it has moments where the listener has a chance to catch their breath, rather than simply being bombarded by riff after riff. The aforementioned ‘Heart Of The Sea Nymph’ features a lull with a wonderfully jazzy solo that then leads into Loomis’ blazing licks, and there’s a great bluesy solo in ‘Spirit Of The Ancient Siren’ that strongly reminds me of Pink Floyd. ‘Many A Fortnight’ is actually an interlude track featuring the use of an e-bow and some chopped and manipulated acoustic guitar. And ‘People Of The Bog’ has a quiet part that has some vaguely Middle-Eastern percussion. The album’s final track, ‘Stone King (The Awakening Pt. 2)’, has a quiet intro that leads into slower, epic riffing, picks up the pace considerably before slowing and finally fading into an ambient outro that is actually taken from ‘The Ritual’ by Kevin MacLeod of Incompetech, which brings the album to a close.

Perhaps the biggest change here is that Keith is charging for this album, where before he released the music for free and encouraged donations. (His previous work is still available for free at his website.) Considering how much work he put into this album, I really can’t blame him; Awaken The Stone King is clearly a labor of love, and definitely worth the money. The album definitely lives up to my own hype, and has started 2011 on a great note.



My score: 5 out of 6