If you like living in the past musically and you are a fan of Progressive Rock, you can't go wrong when listening to "Firebrand", the latest album of Norwegian Proggers RING VAN MÖBIUS. You will be transported back to the early seventies, in sound and music as well as atmosphere. Their main influences seem to be VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR and EMERSON, LAKE & PALMER, but they will also remind you of JETHRO TULL and Peter Gabriel era GENESIS from time to time. If all of those names mean anything to you, you know what you can expect to hear on "Firebrand". If, on the other side of the spectrum, all these names are like expletives to you, then you need to examine whether you are capable of comprehending what RING VAN MÖBIUS is playing and how the songs are constructed. What is compulsory, though, is having a broad mind, even when it comes to Progressive Rock. That is the main focus, because this is as far from Metal as Prog Rock can get.

The main instrument isn't a distorted guitar, or the heavy riffing. Nope, the keyboards in all tits aspects is what is the protagonist in the stories that RING VAN MÖBIUS is trying to convey to us on "Firebrand". And as this is METAL TEMPLE, it does take a bit of adjusting to try and appreciate the efforts that have made it onto the album. only three songs, but still just under 48 minutes of very intrinsic, rather strangely constructed pieces of music strung together into what are supposed to be well written songs. Thankfully the site has an old hand in their midst who is like the mastodon of the club, so he'll probably  be able to tell it in such a way that it will make sense for the people that read this site.

So, let me apologise, as the way that RING VAN MÖBIUS has arranged the songs on "Firebrand" doesn't always make sense to me. What I can say that if you aren't giving your full attention to the music that is being played, you are in danger of finding it long, winding, very expansive and even boring from time to time. Whilst when you do listen carefully, preferably with your headphones on and your eyes closed, you will be transported into a world of beautiful surroundings and atmospheric soundscapes. Which will make my only conclusion  to be that you have to listen to find out if "Firebrand" is a brand you like. If it is, you'll have another gem in your musical array of bands called RING VAN MÖBIUS.