Nospun

US prog metallers look to the past and future in style.

“We knew we had really done something special.”

“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 the US quartet’s debut album //Opus//, there is every chance that Nospūn will end up globetrotting around our very planet.

Leaning heavily on influences like Dream Theater, Haken and Symphony X, but pushing them one step forward, the concept record 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 is quite the feat.

It only took a mere seven years, though, 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 interest shown in //Opus// – leading to the group “playing catch-up” with physical products and merchandise.

But the North Carolina band are not a bolt from the blue, as their members previously played together under different monikers. It’s only through Nospūn, however, that things are really taking off.

“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.”

Listening to the album, it can be hard to believe much of it was captured in living rooms; it is thanks to bassist Cole Millward, who recorded, mixed and mastered it himself.

The group are planning to tour, and they have a slot booked at the 2024 ProgPower festival – with rehearsals starting already.

“It’s not like we’re new to a stage or anything like that… we just haven’t played this music on stage yet, and it’s a little bit next level,” Millward said. “We want to put in the rehearsal time to make sure we’re doing the album justice when we play it live.”

The concept behind //Opus//, meanwhile, has echoes of Dream Theater’s //Scenes From A Memory//, but chucks on extra layers of trippyness. “It follows a protagonist who himself is a composer,” Millward says, “and mostly what dominates his life is that he hears in his mind his perfect piece of music that he wants to write. He suffers from a form of writer’s block that every time he attempts to play it on an instrument or write it down, it just leaves him.” Chuck in some strange deaths, and a machine that brings the composer in touch with an older version of himself, and you’ve got one of the proggiest concepts of the year. Continue at this rate, and it does indeed look like Nospūn will be travelling far. CC

PROG FILE

LINE-UP: Phillip Rich (vocals), James Nelson (guitar), Cole Millward (bass), Paul Wood (drums)

SOUNDS LIKE: Post-2000 Dream Theater getting their party on with Haken.

CURRENT RELEASE: //Opus// is out now.

WEBSITE: https://nospun.bandcamp.com

— Chris Cope