INK

Ink is a phenomenal debut album, specially considering this is such a young band. The sound of Pervy Perkin is a direct heritage of the bands that inspired them to be musicians, so that's what you're gonna find, basically. But in this two hours plus monster there's an interesting mixture of modern currents, such as Dream Theater, Pain of Salvation, Opeth or Porcupine Tree, with the more classical and refined sound of Pink Floyd, Rush, Yes or Camel.

Ink is a journey through all this influences, but it doesn't sound disjointed or forced. Surprisingly, the "Pervy Perkin factor" makes the whole thing glue perfectly. So you can be listening to a mellow section driven by acoustic guitars only to be drowned in a crescendo with reveries of Metallica's Ride the Lightning, and then jump into an Opeth-like riff that will break in a reggae mood to end up in a pompous chorus filled with choirs and orchestrations. But hey, the next song will be an electronic piece, so brace yourselves!

Pervy Perkin has achieved what seemed impossible attending to the lenght of the album: you never lose interest while listening to it, you always want to know what comes next... and probably you'll always be surprised. Ink is a playful album, it reminds me of the first time I listened to Haken: there's joy in this songs, they're filled with an intangible energy. The multiple voices and choirs resemble to the ones seen in Transatlantic, althought they lack production overall; the instrumental work is superb, though. If you are a keyboardist, you're gonna love this album.

If I had to choose just three tracks from the album to introduce anyone into the fantastic world of Pervy Perkin, I'd say: Of Echoes and Reflections, Memories of the Water and S!urm. Ink is, in my opinion, one of the best prog albums of 2014 so far, so you will not be disappointed anyway!