THE FUTURE LIES BROKEN

Two brothers from Burlington, drummer Jeff Laramee and guitarist Pete Laramee, moved to Baltimore in 1994 in search for some good musicians around their project.There they met Luis Nasser, who was spending time with Radio Silence (the future Sonus Umbra), and joined them on bass and keyboards.After the first album ''Search from sea to sea'' with Alan Jantz on vocals, Kurgan's Bane were again in search for a new lead singer.15 days of audition during the summer of 99' were enough to hire female vocalist Lisa Francis.In January 2000 the new line-up was back in the studio to record the second album ''The future lies broken''.The album was released the same year on the Swedish Record Heaven label.

Francis' impressive vocal tones matched nicely with Kurgan's Bane heavy instrumental moves and the second album of the group was a good effort on RUSH-influenced Progressive Rock with emphasis on Pete Laramee's guitar exercises, although there are also some light KING CRIMSON and QUEENSRYCHE touches, especially in the harder moves.The tracks are characterized by fiery solos, ALEX LIFESON-like rhythmic anomalies and shifting tempo changes and a powerful rhythm section with Francis' providing excellent vocals in all of them.The music is particularly easy-listening and the pieces have few surprises structurally speaking, although the high level of technique is evident in most of them.Keyboards and piano are only used sporadically in a number of pieces to add some depth, but ''The future lies broken'' is largely a guitar-based Heavy Prog album with evident RUSH references.Closer moden comparison woul be compatriots TILES in terms of energy and style.The album contains also plenty of atmospheric parts with an extreme vocal depth due to Francis' unique voice, while a couple of tracks are all instrumental with a fairly complex sound.

From the school of RUSH-inspired lyrical, guitar-based Prog Rock comes this interesting US band.The combination of guitar-driven challenging runs and passionate female vocals is more than interesting, making the album a warmly recommended release.