RITES AT DAWN

Wobbler

Symphonic Prog

4.00 | 644 ratings

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Wicket
Prog Reviewer

UPDATED

So I got crushed for dissing this album, and I get it.

I was wrong. I don't like admitting when I'm wrong but I'm man enough to admit when I screw up.

I thought these guys just took a page out of the Yes book and just phoned it in, but after hearing much worse prog bands, I decided to re calibrate my thinkings on progressive music as a whole and revisit the Wobbler catalog.

The good thing about this album is that the songs are actually written to support verses and choruses now, unlike "Afterglow" where you only heard a minute and a half of singing on the entire record. "La Bealtine" sounds like a properly vocal driven song. The mixing is balanced this time, and the band never truly overpowers the singing and vice versa. "In Orbit" really sounds like a lost Yes track, but as much as it bothers me, the song is still well written and composed, and the mixing is far better than before.

"This Past Presence" starts slowly, but a quick change of pace and some nifty guitar and piano work make it a nice little tune, "A Faerie's Play" sounds like a mild tribute to the American, Italian and Canterbury prog scenes and "The River" finally opens up some space for the band to stretch out and solo more.

Granted, the focus on singing now has set the instrumental sections back a bit on this album, but seeing the songwriting and composing improve is a good thing. The lack of creativity still bums me out a bit, as I wish they incorporated a bit more of their medieval stylings instead of using the Yes playbook of synths, harmonics and samples, and I'm also kind of over the throwaway intro and outro tracks on albums now (I say attach them to the beginning and end of your opening and closing songs, that way people have no choice but to hear them, and it streamlines the tracklisting). There's still signs of improvement, but I'm still not sold on this band quite yet.

Wicket | 3/5 | 2015-8-4

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