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Review of Metatron Power and Light by Author/Screenwriter Marc Cushman 

On Disclosure, Metatron Power and Light never overpower the music or distract from the message. The keyboard guides and haunts, the guitar licks and tickles, the drums contribute the right element of energy and pace. Each instrument is played with such professionalism that it becomes clear any of the band members could seize the spotlight, but they don’t. All the parts work, and all work together. The theme to each song is always front and center with “MPL,” a group on a distinct path of its own, far afield from mainstream popular music, and even most art rock.

Some highlights from Disclosure:

The collection begins with “Full Disclosure,” and don’t you wish all things in life began with such a promise and clarity. The writers are Tom Davis and Val Vontourne. Sounding a bit like Robbie Robertson singing an alternate universe rendition of Donovan’s “Season of the Witch,” Davis discloses:

“As I gaze upon the annals of time / One thing that comes through / We are not alone in this universe / It’s a thought that rings true.”

The lilting voice of Val Vontourne offers:

“From Manhattan to Minot, Boston to L.A. / They’re people asking questions and they will not go away / But what has been seen, might not be what it seems / The government’s shadows dance and deceive.”

The track makes for an excellent introduction to Metatron Power and Light. The scene is set, the suspicions cast, the doors to other realms and the inner mind are opened, and the lights in the room dimmed to influence the mood. (As with old Moody Blues albums, I find MPL plays best in the dark.)

“Witchcraft,”by Tom Davis and Corey Fish, hangs over you like a warm night on the bayou. Lead guitarist Charlie Gould channels a bit of Dire Straits on this track, with a further nod to John Fogerty and others of his swamp rock ilk. Percussionist Corey Fish gives the track a rock steady beat. You will find as you journey through the album that MPL pick and choose from a universe filled by the subgenres of rock, i.e. – rock and roll, rockabilly, symphonic rock – adding in what always seems to be just the right accents to the bed of music, in which the vocals glide on top. Tom Davis sings:

“I walked into the bar room / I was strung out from the road

I was numb and I was tired / From that long-haul overload

Across the room I saw a girl / With eyes that burned like coal

She taunted me with electric smiles / Like lightening to my soul

I should have known that she was making Witchcraft

I should have known that she would steal my soul.”

Watch your soul as you listen to this mesmerizing track.

The King of Darkness turns up in “Making a Deal.” There’s a bit of funk in this one because, well, there’s a bit of funk in you-know-who. Channeling through lead singer Tom Davis, the dark one lays his rap on us:

“In life’s journey, some ask themselves

Why the big-time has passed them by

They want it all, and they want it now

No need to wonder how or why

They decide to make a connection

With the Bearer of Light from the other side

In a self-centered new world reflection, it’s

A one-way ticket for one hell of a ride.

They’re making a Deal

Whether down at the crossroads or Hollywood and Vine

They’re Making a Deal

Gonna have it all for a moment of time.”

The next track, “Harpies,”is not about what you may think … or is it? It makes a fitting companion piece to “Making a Deal,” with focus on a different type demon. Davis and Val Vontourne trade off on the lead vocals, with Vontourne singing:

“Another politician has just taken center stage

He tells all people that he loves them so

He comes on like a sage, says with him they should engage

A false prophet selling empty endless prose.”

“The Watcher,”like many of the other songs on the album, is hypnotic, creating a smooth balance between head and heart and tapping foot. Splendid merging of guitar, keyboard, drums, all seasoned, tasteful, flavored but hardly limited by past musical trends. And those vocals between Davis and Vontourne make for a smooth balance – beauty and the beast.

“Shape Shifter”is spellbinding. Chris Isaak meets Lou Reed meets Dire Straits meets Jefferson Starship meets, well, The X-Files. In other words, difficult to categorize – a dash of this, a pinch of that, a touch of something to chill your spine, and out comes a song that is immediately pleasing to the ear and soul, engaging and surprising. Indeed, “Ship Shifter” pulls off some shape shifting of its own, with an intriguing, thoughtful lyric, and a haunting, beautiful melody. Tom Davis and Val Vontourne co-wrote, and co-sing this tale of an alien encounter in Monument Valley. Davis gives voice to the earthbound traveler, and the lilting voice of Vontourne drifts in for the chorus, like the call of a lovely siren, warning and, at the same time, becoming the driver:

“Beware unwary driver, beware as you drive on / Your reality is changing, and it’s hours before the dawn.”

If there was such a thing as a hit single these days for alternate rock bands and cosmic voyagers such as Metatron Power and Light, this eerie track would well qualify.

“Where Empires Go to Die”offers a lyric that must be heard – by everyone.

“One day while reading history, I paused to take a sigh

About the land Afghanistan, Where Empires Go to Die

Alexander the Great, he tried and failed, the Mongols did too

The British and the Russians, they got their ass kicked too

America’s been there many years, and I ask myself why

We don’t learn from history, Where Empires Go to Die.”

Ain’t it the sad truth. Davis sings: “Where is the outrage?”!

Poignant observations, uncompromised truth, yet somehow coated with an easy-as-molasses rappin’ blues vocal delivering a smooth-talkin’ tune, set to a Cajun rock beat. Lead guitar picker Charlie Gould and drummer Corey Fish add a sense of fun to Davis’s dire warnings. Remember John Lennon’s “Cripples Inside,” which so effectively married a poignant lyrical observation with a good-time tune and performance. Multiply that by ten and you have “Where Empires Go to Die.”

If we have to go to hell in a handbasket, here’s what should be on the radio as we make the drive.

For “In Another Life,”smooth rock gets a little Brazilian bossa nova and jazz slipped into the mix. In doing so, the pretty “Girl from Ipanema” has her perception altered.

“You walk across a sunlit room, a face smiles with a flare

You know the spirit behind the smile but can’t place when or where

A mist encompasses your being, you see the place at last

There is no accidental meeting, but an illuminating of the past …”

There seems no limit to Metatron Power and Light. You cannot box this group in. From symphonic rock, to Cajun rock, to blues rock, MPL shifts styles, influences, moods, with ease, yet each song in this collection feels perfectly at home with all the others. There is substance behind the pleasing tunes and expert performances. Mythology, paranormal events, unexpected encounters of the third kind, soul searching, all dealt to the listener with a sleight of hand by these masters of music and magic.

- Marc Cushman, author of Long Distance Voyagers: The Story of the Moody Blues.

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