TRUE MYTH

I am really surprised to see Warner take a gamble on an unknown Canadian band to be the first band from that country to record digitally, even more surprising was it was a prog rock band. In 1979, no less when prog rock was now considered out of fashion. Yes and Genesis didn't even bother releasing albums that year (although Genesis did work on Duke at the end of the year, it was obviously too late for them to have it out the same year). True Myth was lead by keyboardist Tom Treumuth, hence the band name, with Bruce Cummings on vocals. This music seemed to be pretty typical of prog rock bands of the mid to late '70s (roughly 1975 to '78) from the American Midwest and southern Ontario, a combination of pomp with prog. "Reach for the Sky" has that rather obvious pomp rock feel, with proggy passages. "It's Got to Be" was the band's attempt at a hit, but has too many tricks up their sleeve to be FM rock fare. I really love this piece. It appear to have backing vocals. Seems Ian Thomas was credited. Some of you know him as the guy who wrote and recorded "Runner" that became something of a minor hit for Manfred Mann's Earth Band. He was also the brother of comedian Dave Thomas of Bob & Doug McKenzie fame (alongside Rick Moranis). "Time and Time Again" features some Mellotron, which is another instrument that had fallen out of favor by this time, so nice to hear. There is no doubt about the last piece, "Song for the World", it's truly amazing! This is without a doubt the album's highlight. I really love how the album ended up with a bang, especially with that atmospheric passage. I guess the best way I can describe the music is a pomp rock version of Gentle Giant. Doesn't have those vocal harmonies or really tricky time signatures, it's a fairly accessible album.

There was a couple of articles in a couple issues of Billboard in 1979 about this group, and of digital recording in general. They made mention of talks of an American release, but that was not to be, probably due to lack of sales in Canada. I guess I can't be too surprise, prog rock just wasn't so viable in 1979 the way it was in 1972.

So in conclustion, it's a very good album, but it's also a bit uneven, so I can't call it a masterpiece or anything, but if you can find it for a decent price, it's worth it.

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