EYES OF THE WORLD

This is Neo-Prog with a hard edge and the recipe for the whole album can be found in the album opener Erase...Rewind a rather grandiose song that sails through time changes, and light and dark passages with deft aplomb. The edgy vocals add just the right amount of drama and one instantly believes this album may be a classic.

Stronger is next up and it rocks along at a frenetic pace and has a catchy chorus but it sounds so hackneyed as does Windows To Your Soul which whilst decent enough and despite some scratchy mellotron sounds, sounds like a million other Neo-Prog songs, particularly Hogarth-era Marillion

Glass Tiger's Eye is rockier than its predecessors but is like a horrible pastiche of American pomp rock and really grates with this reviewer. Lapse Of Sensation is next up and the band is back on track with a peach of a song that showcases the band's excellent musicianship. The intro has echoes of early Genesis before moving into sparkly keyboards and soaring guitar, I've no idea what its all about but it finishes with a nice guitar piece before the instrumental Eccentric Orbits comes chugging in with a hint of Rush and quite a few too many Prog cliches thrown in for good measure.

Things slow down considerably for the Prog ballad Amber Skies and yet again we are in cliche territory, one wonders why this song was included as it doesnt do the band or the album any favours. Things are rounded off with The Vast Within which initially sounds like Amber Skies Part II but eventually changes pace with a slightly jazz- rock style workout after around 5 minutes before hitting familiar Neo-Prog territory once again.

I am somewhat bemused by this album, it's very much a curate's egg, occasionally brilliant but quite often mundane. All the right ingredients are there - the guys can certainly play and the vocals are more than competent. They seen to know what they want to do but I'm not sure they have enough of their own identity to make it big just yet. However this is a debut album and as such is a reasonable effort. The next album will be make or break-lets hope we dont have to wait the three years this album took to put out. Ratings wise I feel "2 stars" would be unjust so I will go with a 3 star rating because this is a debut and it hints at possibly better things to come.

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