This is the second album by Telergy (read about the first one here), and again Robert McClung has chosen to make it a conceptual work. This time dealing with the story of Eunice “Goody” Cole, who was convicted of witchcraft in Hampton New Hampshire, in the year of 1656. In 1938, the year the town celebrated 300 years of existence, she was publicly exonerated of any wrongdoing and restored as a citizen of good standing. A more detailed explanation is in the CD booklet.
As promised after the first release, the spoken word sections are separated from the music. However I still think those only add to the whole concept. Opening with Meeting House Green part 1, we are lead into the story. Just an acoustic guitar and a vocal, simple yet effective. Rumors is a progressive metal work out with grandiose choirs and a film score like orchestral part. Accusations is kicking into gear with force, but calms down quickly. Closing with Exoneration, little time is wasted to grab the listener by the throat. Beautiful violin solo!
As you see I only took a few songs to describe. I feel it is impossible to translate a album as this into a post. This is something you have to experience for yourself. As is regular in this genre, the album has lots of variation, and explores many sub-genres. The list of guests is even longer than before, to name a few: Ty Tabor, Trent Gardner, Joel Hoekstra, Ryo Okumoto, Dee Snider and Nik turner are amongst them. Robert is again handling a lot of instruments himself and adds to the vocals as well. Massive body of work that deserves to be heard by anyone into this type of music, but will easily cross borders as well.