Review – Keegan Ostrowski – The Ilusen’s Fallacy
Artist: Keegan Ostrowski
Album: The Ilusen’s Fallacy
Rating: 8/10
Keegan Ostrowski. This accomplished character. He is a producer, artist, and guitarist just to name a few. I was invited to listen to a production of his debut “The Ilusen’s Fallacy”, and at first, I was leery, however, once I listened, I was taken on a rollercoaster of a journey through multiple genres all at once. Progressive Death Metal isn’t really my strong point, but I figured I’d give it a shot for Keegan, since this guy has a story, one that’s hard to tell shortly.
Keegan had produced many tracks and was almost finished when: He was robbed by people he had trusted, but instead of getting bummed, he managed to start over and bring everything back from the dead, with, as the album has been quoted, “…many progressive styles of songs ranging from elegant symphony, to complex jazz, to crushing death metal, often all within the same song.”
Which continues,
“Drug abuse, disease, war. This album delves into it all.”
The album definitely performs that with much of the instrumental work being a build up to some roaring vocals. The track “Rot” is a perfect example of the hard hitting lyrics and delivery of the album. This is easily the hardest track on the whole album when it comes to every performance.
I must mention how there’s a recurring theme throughout the album, that starts in“Inaugural” and streams along, like in “Bossa Nova” and “Opium And Belladonna”. Also, just so the listener is aware, “Inaugural” is the intro, and that “Bossa Nova” and “The Chant” are transitions on this album.
Now I’m brought to the track “Opium and Belladonna” which seems to come across as the deepest track, with the slow delivery and drawn vocals. It has a slow pace, and almost a spooky feel. But it really pushes it on the vocals backed by a double bass. The female vocalist in the background really brought the track to the next level.
Keegan himself adds, “Finally, if anyone is skeptical by nearly an hour and thirty minutes of music, they could always listen to Bots_Build_Bots, which is 23 minutes of an entire finale of my album, and is split up into eight parts. It derived themes from Portal and Portal 2, from the amazing soundtrack that Mike Morasky came up with, and tried to emulate that as best as possible. I believe it could stand alone as its own EP, it’s that diverse and huge.”
Keegan on Social Media
Bandcamp|SoundCloud|Spotify
Credits
Composing, writing, guitar and male vocal recording: Keegan Ostrowski
7-string fretless bass recording: Linus Klausenitzer
Female vocal recording: Sara Vanderheyden
Producing, mixing, and mastering engineer: Keegan Ostrowski
Guitars: Axe Fx II, Custom Kiesel SCB7
Male vocals: MXL 990, Focusrite 6i6
Female vocals: Samsong C01, Focusrite 2i2
Artwork:
Album cover artwork: Krysta Meredith
Album cover photography: Keegan Ostrowski
