Favourite rock/metal concept albums (Part 12) – The Dear Hunter’s Antimai

Every now and then, I come across an album that completely blows my mind, as it seems perfect in almost every way. The last such album I listened to was The Mars Volta’s self-titled 2022 release. A few days ago, I was browsing a list of albums on my Spotify home screen and randomly clicked on one with an interesting cover design (I am eternally grateful to their recommendation engine for many such chance discoveries).

The album, Antimai, was a July 2022 release from an American prog rock group called The Dear Hunter. I was surprised that I had never heard of them, considering they have been around since 2006 and that almost all of their nine studio releases have been concept albums; I regularly conduct searches for “best concept albums of the year/decade” or “latest concept album releases”, and somehow hadn’t picked up their name from the search results (although I subsequently validated that they do show up!). Although they clearly have a loyal fan following, and their releases are covered in dedicated sites like The Prog Report and Prog Archives, it’s a crime that the band are not better known, given the quality of their music.

The main body of their work is a series of concept albums known as the Act Series, with five albums released between 2006 and 2016, and the sixth and final instalment still awaited. Antimai is the second album in a new narrative series, whose story kicked off with the 2021 EP, The Indigo Child and an accompanying short sci-fi film called “The Indigo Child: Prologue: Cycle 8” | DUST.

From left to right, **The Dear Hunter**: Robert Parr (backing vocals/guitar), Maxwell Tousseau (backing vocals/guitar/keyboards), Casey Crescenzo (lead vocals/guitar), Nick Sollecito (bass) and Nick Crescenzo (drums)

Artist: The Dear Hunter, comprising Casey Crescenzo, (lead vocals, guitar, organ), his brother Nick Crescenzo (backing vocals, drums & percussion), Maxwell Tousseau (backing vocals, guitar, keyboards, percussion), Robert Parr (backing vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Nick Sollecito (bass). Additionally a horn section features on several tracks.

Album: Antimai (2022)

Narrative genre: Post-apocalyptic fantasy/science fiction

Album theme/concept: The fictional city of Antimai is built in concentric circles, with each ring occupied by a separate caste and organized in a social hierarchy. Each song represents one of the eight rings of the city.

Best songs: Ring 8 – Poverty, Ring 7 – Industry, Ring 6 – LoTown, Ring 5 – Middle Class, Ring 3 – Luxury, Ring 2- Nature.

What makes it special: Listening to Antimai is like drinking a new wine and having your taste buds tickled by notes from old favourites. I could get hints of Sufjan Stevens’ Illinois, The Grateful Dead’s Terrapin Station, Mayer Hawthorne and even late 80’s Miami Sound Machine. The tracks have the shifting song structure that is typical of prog rock, but are also infused with elements of Jazz, R&B, funk, Caribbean and Latin rhythms. All of this is expressed through lush orchestration and elevated by delightful vocal harmonies.

The album kicks of with a song about the outermost ring of the city of Antimai; the track is named Ring 8 – Poverty, and the opening bars felt like the soundtrack to a thriller film; in fact I started visualizing these notes playing over the tense opening scene of the 1958 Orson Welles classic Touch of Evil.

Ring 3 – Luxury is perhaps the most ambitious track on the album and is essentially a two-part song, with the first part titled Hall of the Guides, kicking off with spoken verse like in a stage musical, which then segues into a melodic song. But the real beauty is the second half, titled Cream of the Crop, which features a delightful nine-note riff before each verse, played on a marimba or xylophone (or perhaps it’s a Caribbean steel drum).

My favourite track is Ring 2 – Nature, which I have listened to more times than I can count. I love it for its heartfelt melody and evocative, and sometimes playful lyrics:

“Then there arose those intent on moving
And like a miracle, they kept improving
Then change begat the tail
begat the fin begat the fist
Strength enough to subsist”

In my listing of Best songs, I’ve excluded only 2 out of the 8 tracks, and that’s only because those two don’t appeal to me quite as much as the other six, in a relative sense. Many other reviewers consider the closing track Ring 1 – Tower, as one of the best on the album.

Antimai is the gift that keeps on giving, as every subsequent round of listening reveals new sounds embedded in the many layers of music. I look forward to its sequel titled Sunya which is due out some time this year.

Here are the other bands/albums featured in this series:-