OUT OF MYSELF

I may be stepping out a bit early, but this is one of the best recordings I've heard this year. A new band with a sound and quality not found on the third or fourth release from more well-known bands. Terrific. A bit of something for everyone. Influnces range from Pink Floyd to King Crimson, Dream Theater (w/o the horrid vocals) to Porcupine Tree. Muscular and hard driven to pyschedelic and subtle. Touches of Opeth and POS also shine through. I'm not a metal fan, but the harder sections seem to grow on you rather then push you away.

I was captured right off the mark, The Same River is a wonderfully mesmeric opener. The vocals, more Steve Wilsonesque than anyone else, are dreamlike and impossible not to appreciate. Mariusz Duda even dips into the Hogarth style vocal, but pulls it off better. There are a few "cookie monster" moments, but they are brief and carry a certain element of angst which wouldn't be as poignant if delivered more subtly. Whispers and screams from In Two Minds to the title track. Engaging.

Two instrumentals, Reality Dream I and II, open the keyboard guitar duels that sound fresh and inspired. Jacek Melnicki and Piotr Grudzinski trade off over the power drumming of Piotr Kozieradzki. (The names remind me of my high school days...) Bassist/Singer Mariuz Duda holds down the bottom and occasionally moves to the front of the mix.

A concept album, the lyrics tend to embrace the mind, a man who suffers an emotional collapse and reenters the outside world and fight through failures, but refuses to quit trying. Dark, but inspiring.

This is a band to watch, er listen, for in the future. They have plenty of talent to build on and have enough vesatility to capture listeners of other genres.