US prog metallers look to the past and future in style.
“WE WANT TO make this a lifestyle,” Nospūn vocalist Phillip Rich says.“We want to spend our time writing music like this, and sharing it with the world. We’d like to go wherever this music is willing to take us.”
Judging by Opus, there’s every chance that Nospūn will end up as globetrotters. Leaning heavily on influences from Dream Theater, Haken and Symphony X, but pushing them one step forward, the US quartet’s conceptual debut will strike a chord with many –and with a massive, polished sound that impressively happens to be self-engineered, combined with some serious chops, it’s quite the feat. It took them seven years to make, which can be attributed to a desire to get things spot on, and some life events, too.
“We knew something was different this time, that we had really done something special,” Rich adds.“And we’re already working on the next piece. I think the only thing slowing us down on that front is, we were never really expecting this album to take us some of the places it’s starting to take us.”
Victims of their own success, then. Nospūn were somewhat taken aback by the level of interest shown in Opus, leading to the group “playing catch-up” with physical products and merchandise. But the North Carolina band aren’t a bolt from the blue, as their members previously played together under different monikers. It’s only through Nospūn, however, that they’ve really started going places.
“We were utterly dumbfounded when everything started taking off,” Rich says.“It’s a wild animal we’ve stumbled into. It’s crazy, and things are both exciting and a little scary.”
It’s hard to believe much of the album was captured in living rooms, and th
