And the award for Milwaukee’s most ambitious rock album of 2017 goes to… Fibonacci Sequence’s Cinema Finis. The imaginative instrumental quartet of seasoned musicians—guitarist Michael Butzen, keyboardist Jeffrey Schuelke, bassist Chad Novell and drummer Tom Ford—took seven years to complete the follow-up to its 2010 debut, Numerology. But Cinema Finis was worth the wait. Self-financed and then promoted via an Indiegogo campaign, the dense 75-minute album tells the allegorical story of the river Styx in Greek mythology, which separates the real world from the afterlife. A formerly abandoned movie theater, newly restored, represents the river, and the ticket taker, whose voice and footsteps open the album, represents the ferryman of Hades who carries souls of the newly deceased across the river and into the afterworld.
From the progressive-metal behemoth “Obeah” to the brooding, classically influenced “Nightshade” to the Gentle Giant-like a cappella “Lobby Song” (intended to sound like the catchy jingles that once accompanied theatrical films), Cinema Finis is a tour de force of challenging music with broad appeal. WMSE “Planet Prog” radio host Mark Krueger recites Psalm 23 over a pretty backdrop of piano and acoustic guitar, and many of the images that accompany the album were shot at The Modjeska Theatre. Elaborate imagery created by two Milwaukee artists and an evolving online story further enhance the album’s listenability and impact.
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