After Nations - Jūra – Song Review – Instrumental Prog-Rock from Lawrence, Kansas, USA
Today, I am writing about the promising instrumental prog-rock band After Nations from Lawrence, Kansas, USA, and their song Jūra, which is part of their latest studio album “The Endless Mountain,” released in 2022.
After Nations - Jūra (Official Audio Preview)
Written and produced by Andrew ElliottDrums co-written on Esmé by Travis Baker
On this album:Andrew Elliott - GuitarsTravis Baker - DrumsZack Krishtalka - Bass
Recorded at GPMR Studios
Recording and mixing by Andrew Elliott
Mastering by Ray Marte, Westfall Recording Co.
After Nations is a four-piece progressive rock band with a traditional formation of two guitar players, one bassist, and a drummer. The musical concept in Jūra is only a hint of their actual identity. It reminds me of a successful combination and execution of both vintage and modern prog-rock influences in a good balance, with a slightly modern character. They make me hear early Dream Theater as well as Joe Satriani, The Aristocrats (Guthrie Govan), Icefish (Marco Sfogli), and Plini, while also supporting it with math, post, and jazz-rock influences in their musical foundation.
Jūra stands out with its advanced musicianship, technical difficulty, and progressive rock character of After Nations. Although the general mood of this song sounded traditional and familiar to me since my first discovery of it, I found out that the band has a lot more to offer when I went into their discography and sneak-peeked a few more songs from their latest studio album, The Endless Mountain. The album is heavily influenced by Indian culture which automatically makes them unique, which we don't necessarily get to hear in this song.
Technically, the album has all the necessary standards to be considered a great-sounding album, in my humble opinion. The sound design has familiar characteristics from the post and prog-rock worlds, sounds very balanced, safe, and also easy listening at the same time.
After Nations, band photoCredit: Unknown
On the other hand, I have to admit a few things that caught my attention, things that I consider a weakness. First of all, After Nations suffers from their branding that doesn't necessarily provide enough information about their true identity. Secondly, a collective with such talent and musical knowledge, making badass music together, is also expected to be more visionary when it comes to their concept. In this case, Jūra sounded a bit too similar to other prog-rock projects with their sound design, I must say. Lastly, the band doesn't have enough representation online, and their strategy doesn't seem to be helping them enough. One of the main strengths of this band would be their musicianship skills for me, but there weren't enough professionally filmed and produced performance videos in their library so far, except one pandemic collaboration-style video that was uploaded only a few days ago (after nine months since their album release).
After Nations, band photoCredit: Unknown
In conclusion, it's always a great pleasure discovering another overly talented prog-rock collective making super complicated rock music. Great-sounding instrumental prog-rock song, blending traditional and modern influences with advanced musicianship, reminded me of early Dream Theater, The Aristocrats, and Plini. I hope you enjoyed the review – thank you for your time and attention.
After Nations, The Endless Mountain (2022) Album Front Cover Artwork Credit: Artwork by Timur Khabirov (All4band Design)
After Nations on the web
Official Website
Bandcamp
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