Brass Camel - Camel (2025) [Official Digital Download 24/96]

Canada has really been hitting a homerun so far for 2025. It’s more than just the big names from the realms of Rush, Harmonium, Klaatu, VOIVOD, and Maniege. But the ones that are keeping the legacy alive. You have; Half Past Four, Tumbleweed Dealer, Antoine Baril for his One-Man Medley’s (Genesis, Yes, ELP, and Rush) on YouTube, Blood Ceremony, Black Mountain, Crown Lands, and a new band that are keeping that progressive level pumping in the Vancouver area. That band is Brass Camel.

Formed in 2018, it originally started as a duo which considered Daniel Sveinson and Curtis Arsenault. Then, later on adding in three members to the band, it becomes a free-for-all like no other. Their latest album simply titled Camel, is a follow-up to their 2022 debut Brass.

Listening to their second album, they bring in all of the heavy ammunition that is needed to add in the funk, epic, hard, arena rock, progressive territories, unexpected time changes, there’s no wrong that this band can take it up a notch by adding enough fuel to the fire with massive amounts of heat, spreading like wildfire.

And the quintet, they’ve got all the power they need to give their home country, this massive electrical shock, waiting to be send through the listener’s earbuds! From the moment ‘Pick of the Litter’ gets down in its Zappa orientated form, it starts out with an epic-like fanfare with some incredible drum work from Gilson’s exercise, followed by Ellefson and Arsenault’s instrumental orientation.

And when I say Zappa, they channel his Over-Nite Sensation-era routine for a brief moment in his expansion on ‘I am the Slime’ into the terrors of Damon Fox’s BigElf thrown into the middle with crazy arrangements. Daniel becomes this sermon, giving the Sunday service in church, a massive reality check on what they see on TV, is complete fiction and not what they’re telling you.

It begins with the 11-minute opening track ‘Zealot’ that bursts through the flood gates, with this massive tidal wave, waiting to send its oceanic attacks to hit the cities like no other! With an intensive guitar loop, drums, and roaring organ sounds, it becomes this insane time signature with pound-caking momentum! The mellotron’s send up this reality form of a danger that’s unfolding.

Once the city collapses with a civil war that’s unfolding, Brass Camel set up the score on what’s happening by asking the leader “My god, what have you done?!” They know the founder himself has fucked up, big time. Once the guitar changes into this carousel-like format as the Merry-Go-Round goes in this fast routine for customers to reach this ramming speed, the stop-and-go improvisation of solo, riff, and drum work fell into place, it’s a ride at the amusement park that’ll be talked about in the years to come.

Listening to ‘Chain Reaction’, I almost get a sense of the late ‘70s maestros; Styx, Journey, Rush’s Permanent Waves-era, Starcastle, Max Webster, and of course unsung maestro’s Aviary that comes to mind. Brass Camel were listening to these albums from the groups I mentioned non-stop, but with a country attitude. That is how they know their source material, very well.

Meanwhile, ‘On the Other Side’ lays down that Herbie Hancock approach, channeling the Headhunters-era that speaks of the riff introduction behind ‘Chameleon’. It’s a pleasant jazz-funk rock attitude that Brass Camel hits you even harder to see what’s you’ve been missing while the blaring cannon blasts, begins to blast out of nowhere for the monstrous riffs and Zeppelin-like improvisations on ‘Borrowed Time’.

Closing up shop is the 11-minute epic ‘Another Day’. Seering into crowds in an outside area doing their daily routine with a quiet-like piano intro before blasting up the pearly gates with a soulful-like farewell, honoring Neal Morse’s arrangements from The Similitude of a Dream. The track has this hallway of mirrors reflecting the damage this person has done with revealing all of the horror they have committed.

Veering into this nightmarish double-tracking atmosphere, then changing gears into an uplifting gallop that is almost a signature sound for Brass Camel to do. As the synthesizers flow into the open world, there’s some heavy punches that really kick into overdrive with some cool Italian Prog-like textures from bands such as Le Orme, Banco del Mutuo Soccorso, and Premiata Forneria Marconi’s first two albums (Storia di un Minuto and Per Un Amico).

Once the piano goes into this fast-sped concerto-like race, all bets are completely off. An album worth to prove that the progressive rock genre is still kicking and still growing stronger than ever in different shapes and forms. And for a band like Brass Camel, they manage to deliver something out of this world on their second album. And if you’re very new to them, this might be your gateway to see what you’ve been missing.

Brass Camel is:
Daniel Sveinson - electric guitar/vocals
Curtis Arsenault - bass/vocals
Aubrey Ellefson - keyboards/vocals
Wyatt Gilson - drums and percussion
Dylan Lammie - electric guitar

Tracklist:
01. Zealot 11:09
02. Pick of the Litter 4:09
03. Chain Reaction 4:30
04. On the Other Side 5:07
05. Borrowed Time 3:31
06. Another Day 11:56


Thanks to the Original customer!