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This West-London quintet was formed in 2002, and their unique musical approach has already given the band a cult status on worldwide basis. To put it with words I found in the bio we got from the label, the band creates a new form of music where Prog Rock, Jazz Fusion and a subtle dosis of Technical Death Metal reign, using top notch artistically refined and epic compositions which are a testimony of the highest musicianship!
Three of the musicians teach at The Guitar Institute, one of Europe's higest reputed music colleges. Martin Goulding & Charlie Griffiths take on the guitars, Dave Marks played the bass until recently (he's since been replaced by Steve Woodcock, who also plays the Chapman Stick), Nick Lowczowski controls the drums to perfection, and Jos Geron uses his vocal chords!
But there's more goin' on than just that, because I do discern keyboards/synths in several places, and also the band uses vocal samples in quite a few of the songs! Geron uses his medium high-pitched voice in different ways, at one moment Blackening it somewhat, and producing a mixture of spoken words and singing...then he'll leave the spoken word bit out with a slighly bit more 'melody' as effect...and at occasional moments he actually sings, but seems to remove himself somewhat from the mike to incorporate an additional sound effect. In some of the tracks, the samples and regular vocals are mixed as a quite artistic whole. As can be expected, some of the songs are somewhat more lively than others, and since there's talk of Prog Rock, some of the tracks are slightly longer (the track length varies from 4'20" at the bottom end, to 10'38" for the album opening "Reversal", but the longest track is the 4-part "From Space To Time" with its total of 25'10"). Still, one never gets the feeling of a song being too long, as there's plenty of tempo changes, breaks, and twists throughout the album!
The infusion of Death Metal agression in some of the longer instrumental Jazz Fusion parts (take part one of that lengthy "From Space To Time", a song in which Geron actually does some more 'melodic' vocals than usual) will probably prevent fans of the first genre to get 'bored' too quickly. On the other side, the fact that the Death vibe is not all-encompassing will prevent true Prog or Jazz Fusion fans from regarding this album as something to be left aside! On the contrary, I think the combination will be appalingly appealing!
Personally, I've yet again had the greatest trouble putting the album aside in order to review it! And, having done the review, I only wish I hadn't...because now I have to get started on another review! No small wonder, you'll be able to find this great slab in my 'Best Albums Of 2005' list at the end of the year!
99/100
Review by Tony