On Trial - "Blinded By The Sun" (Molten Records 002)
On Trial - "Blinded By The Sun" (Molten Records 002)
From Aural Innovations #22 (January 2003)
The Danish psychedelic rock band, On Trial, are back with their first studio CD in 4 years. Molten Records is a new label by Richard Allen of Delerium fame. This CD was recorded in Feb. 2000 and I was lucky enough to visit the band twice in the studio to watch it unfold a little. It has been a long time to reach us, but worth the wait. The band recorded around 20 songs and 11 are presented on this CD. The band played quite a lot of these songs on their European tour in 2001 with Nebula. So what is it like? It is like On Trial... the band sound cleaner and not as raw as in the past but the 60’s style comes through strongly with the use of the organ, sitar, drumming style and backing vocals. The dual psychedelic guitars are still used to mastery and there are some very heavy songs like "Downer", "Poor Soul" and the amazing "Kolos". The band have performed several ballads which under the right circumstances might get played on the radio, such as the title track, "Blinded By The Sun", "Everything" and "So Close". After the heavy "Downer", is the brilliant 60’s psychedelic folk song written and performed by the drummer, Guf. The 10 minute "Slippin’ and Slidin’" is reminiscent of classic On Trial trip songs like "New Day Rising" and their brilliant cover of "Slip inside this House". The band close the CD with a the 2 minute spaced out piece called "Kosmonaut". Despite the more clean sound on this CD the band have created another long lived classic psychedelic rock CD for the years to come. The vinyl addition will be released later this year as well as the re-release of the classic 2nd On Trial record, 50 kilometers of underwater Nothingness, Kaptain.
Reviewed by Scott Heller