A Familiar Path is the third chapter of At War With Self, the music project led by multi-instrumentalist and composer Glenn Snelwar. It is a return to Snelwar’s roots as a musician that maintains the concept of the project changing for each release. The original concept in which Snelwar combined classical guitars into progressive and thrash metal has been re-visited and fully realized with A Familiar Path. The new incarnation of At War With Self features Manfred Dikkers, who joins Snelwar again from the Acts of God sessions on drums and percussion. The tracks on A Familiar Path are “the heaviest, most aggressive and accurate version of what I’ve had in mind for combining metal and progressive influences with classical guitars” says Snelwar. Instrumental tracks such as a hybrid half-classical, half-metal rendition of a Heitor Villa-Lobos guitar study, the Slayer-meets-King Crimson aggression of Concrete and Poison and Diseased State, a new rendering of Reflections originally featured on the debut Gordian Knot disc and the guitar shred of The Ether Trail, are balanced with the vocally-centered title track and Ourselves. A Familiar Path is accompanied with artwork that completes the emotion and intensity inspired by the 42 minutes on the disc.
| A Familiar Path | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | November 2009 | |||
| Recorded | Indiana, U.S. Netherlands | |||
| Genre | Progressive metal | |||
| Label | Sluggo's Goon Music | |||
| Producer | Glenn Snelwar | |||
| At War With Self chronology | ||||
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Track listing
edit| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Reflections" | Snelwar | 5:56 |
| 2. | "Diseased State" | Snelwar | 3:12 |
| 3. | "A Familiar Path" | Music: Snelwar, Dikkers Lyrics: Snelwar | 9:35 |
| 4. | "The Ether Trail" | Snelwar, Dikkers | 2:28 |
| 5. | "Ourselves" | Music and Lyrics: Snelwar | 6:29 |
| 6. | "Etude No.10" | Heitor Villa-Lobos Arrangement: Snelwar | 4:03 |
| 7. | "Concrete and Poison" | Snelwar, Trotta, Zodda | 8:01 |
| 8. | "Hope" | Snelwar | 2:44 |
Personnel
editBand members
edit- Glenn Snelwar - electric and acoustic guitars, bass, mandolins, keyboards, e-bow, string arrangements, programming, vocals
Guest musicians
edit- Manfred Dikkers - drums, percussion
- Maggie Snelwar – backing vocals
References
edit- A Familiar Path at AllMusic. Retrieved 14:24, 1 May 2021 (UTC).