UNFOLDED LIKE STAIRCASE

First I want to say that this once I gave clearly more stars than I personally enjoy this album. That's because I can't spot any major faults technically, and artistically this is indeed quite deep and ambitious prog work from USA. For lovers of dark and depressed prog this is surely worth recommendation. Well, I love e.g. 'Plague of the Lighthouse Keeper' by VdGG and Peter Hammill's divings into the angst in general (not ALL of it), but here I feel I'm not really getting anything in return, as is the case with prog metal too. It just brings me down, without lifting up in catharsis. Maybe the main problem is Matthew Parmenter's (who writes the music and plays several instruments) angst-driven, depressed and stuffy vocals. With a better singer I might enjoy this music in all its powerful darkness.

All the tracks are very progressive, often multi-part compositions - but not much different from each other. And it's over an hour long, so it is a demanding album anyhow. In the leaflet Parmenter thanks someone for introducing Van der Graaf Generator to him, and the appreciation to VdGG really shows. But the magic and extraordinary dark beauty of VdGG is absent. Though I can't say this is prog metal - the sound is very 70's with mellotrons and reeds - I guess the listeners of that genre are more potential enjoyers than for example Symphonic Prog or Art Rock lovers.