AND WE'RE NOT HERE AFTER ALL

Overhead's third album is a little bit on the lacking side of things. While the music is well constructed and produced the entire thing comes off as very formulaic. While the band certainly has moments of flash they also often come off as a band without their own identity - listening to the album is nothing like listening to a band who has their own unique approach, and comparisons can easily be drawn to other bands who do have that more unique approach. The music is mostly midpaced with the occasional rock moment and the occasional downtime and the vocals are in a familiar ''haunting and depressive'' kind of fashion. Many of the songs run together, and though it's sometimes done intentionally the album can get that ''wall of sound'' feeling rather quickly.

Still, you have to give them credit for making something unquestionably progressive in style. Prog heads will find themselves in familiar grounds with this one, keyboards and guitars make up the majority of the sound along with the accented vocals, and most of the tunes are reasonably long, such as the two-part opener and the lengthy Lost Inside nearing the end. The rest of the tunes sit comfortably in the 6-8 minute range and they develop well, moving on from one idea to the next fairly gracefully. The undeniable standout of the album is the second part of the opening tracks A Method... is the opening song which starts out nicely using piano which builds into an emotional climax before turning into the second part of the song, the wonderful ...To The Madness, which uses a robotic style of singing to blast through the waters with a rhythmic bass section until some spoken word kicks in near the end. Nice. Entropy is another song that deserves a nod, this one being the rocker. Though it opens in a way that is a touch electronic is soon moves into quick motion with the keys and guitar working in tandem, though this song borders on some of the problems that the album has (see next paragraph), it stands out above the rest for some great solos (if a bit Dream Theater-like) and its speedy pace.

However, there's still some things that pop into the listener's head as this all goes on. Who are we listening to here? The band doesn't really seem to have anything going for them that is better than the next guy's. At times there's flashes of music that sound very familiar to Riverside with heavy segments and a dark voice, other times they sound strikingly like Oceansize with more electronic parts mixed in with a haunting voice. Time Can Stay is a good example of this as it opens like an Oceansize tune, only with a more whiny vocal section. A heavily distorted guitar comes in near the end which sounds a lot like something you'd hear in mainstream American rock music these days, bringing to mind something like Hedly or the like. Luckily the piano section in this one is good enough to keep our minds off that as the vocals develop to the climax. Lost Inside is the longest track of the bunch and it has its moments, but in general it comes off as a much longer version of some of the other songs on the album. A Captain On The Shore is a nice closer for the album with its soothing pace and nicely harmonized vocals nearing the end, but in general it doesn't really open any new areas for the band to explore.

While the album has some great moments and it certainly sounds and looks pretty this one is fairly forgettable. However, if you're a big fan of Oceansize and Riverside then Overhead's new album might just pull at your heart strings. 2.5 out of 5, fans will enjoy it, others may want to look elsewhere.

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