If your band isgoing to be gone for a third of a century, why not return with a grandioseconceptual bang? Sheboygan’s Sunblind Lion know from grandiosity, beingarguably the Badger State’s most renowned progressive rock proponents in theirheyday. For their comeback, they’ve opted for that old prog standby: theconcept album. But instead of setting its framework in some fantastical,futuristic world, a story of tuberculosis and family intrigue surrounding asubstantial inheritance in 1920s Wisconsin (based on a novella by drummer andrecently retired high school English teacher Mike Dellger) provides a canvasfor songs that act as character studies over a range of musical styles. Amidnods to Bob Dylan’s narrative side, Revolver-era Beatles andreggae-leaning rock, Sunblind Lion create intricate, heroic sonics roughlyevenly divided between virtuoso moves and melodic hooks.
