CHOIRS OF THE EYE

This album has, and will be for some time, my favorite CD and artist. No song is restricted by chorus/verse structures, infact I don't recall any parts being repeated at all, showing the masterful composition. Both highly original and highly versatile, the genre of the album ranges from classical to metal to progressive to indy to many more. This can be seen very clearly in the third track: "The Manifold Curiosity."

Peaceful and climactic at first with a lengthy clarinet solo and backing orchestral instruments, the action slows down into sofl guitar strumming with spoken vocals and ambient effects. Smoothly, violins come in and take over with twin melodies, slowly adding the occasional non-diatonic note, until guitars replace them, escalating from beautiful caressing melodies into pure chaos. A few layers of screaming are added over the clashing guitars until everything flows in sync for a 40 second thrash metal breakdown, the finale of this 14 minute epic.

Tracks 2 and 4, "A Pitcher of Summer" and "Wayfarer" respectively, are very melodic, with beautiful falsetto vocals by the bands composer/guitarist Toby Driver. Tracks 1 and 5, "Marathon" and "The Antique" respectively, are both very dark and mostly metal, though very melodic at times; the finales to both songs are very soft and smooth, as is the french horn/flute duet in "Marathon."

Buy this album, and you will not be sorry.