WIZARD'S EYES

A couple of weeks ago, a very special package arrived in my mailbox. It wasn't a great surprise for me because some time ago I was contacted by Andrew Nazarenko asking me if I was interested in receive the last work of Max Velychko. He would send me a hard copy of the album. Of course I said yes. First, because I'm always interested to know the new things which are being made in the world of prog. Second, as a collector of albums I never lose the opportunity to increases it. Besides, it's better to have a hard copy to review an album than a digital copy. Sincerely, I never listened to his previous debut studio album of this project, "Time Z". But, as I had already contacted with his guitar style on the project of Vladimir Gorashchenko, Modern Rock Ensemble on the album "Touch The Mystery", an album already reviewed by me on Progarchives, I'm really very interested because he made a great job on Vladimir's album.

Max Velychko is a Ukrainian guitarist and composer who released two studio albums, "Time Z", in 2010 and "Wizard's Eyes", in 2017. Inside The Sound is a prog metal project of him. According to the linear notes inside the digipack release, he has always been influenced by guitar heroes, progressive rock projects, even jazz rock fusion and modern electronic indie styles of music. I think that is particularly evident on this album. By the other hand, his participation on several music projects, such as, Karfagen, Sunchild and Modern Rock Ensemble, make of him an inescapable character of the modern progressive rock made in the Eastern European Countries, mainly in Ukraine. So, fans of Liquid Tension Experiment, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Riverside and even Steven Wilson, definitely will like this album, very much.

The line up on the album is Max Velychko (guitars, keyboards and 6 string banjo), Dmitry Trifonov (bass), Dmitry Polevoy (drums) and Alexander Yermolovich (drums). The album has also the participation of Antony Kalugin (keyboards), Daniel Ilyin (electric violin), Nila Gopal (table) and Indranila (vocals, Vedic chanting and acoustic sitar).

So, "Wizard's Eyes" is an instrumental melodic progressive rock album of Inside The Sound, the prog rock metal musical project of Max Velychko. "Wizard's Eyes" is their second album and was as released in 2017. It contains tracks that were composed through the years. After years of silence, more properly seven years, we are faced with the release of this new album. The album sounds more like a prog melodic instrumental album than a more traditional prog metal album. The track that can be considered a more traditional prog metal track is the second track, "Dreaming Deja Vue". In my humble opinion, "Wizard's Eyes" is an album with wide range of deep guitar works and keyboards palettes based on groovy and powerful rhythm section. It sounds more as a progressive jazz fusion album with a dazzling guitar work.

About the tracks, the album consists of eleven instrumental compositions clocking in at fifty three minutes with most of the tunes running around the five minute range, a couple shorter and a couple longer. It seems that each of the eleven tracks on this album has its own story and mood. The compositions are all more complex and grand in style and scope than you might imagine at a first listen. By complex I'm referring to the constantly changing nature, fast to slow, start and stop, call and response, and even guitar interplay with the other performers. At times the music is very smooth and dreamy but that might just as easily be backed up with some crunchy riffs later on. The opener, "A Secret Journey" is a very nice combination of guitar riffs and spacey keyboards and a rock solid rhythm section. The addition of spoken word parts are a nice delicate touch. As I said before, "Dreaming Deja Vue" is the most typical prog metal track on the album. "Fantasia" is a jazzy ballad with sensual piano lines. "Friends" is a number with a smooth jazz sort of feel that veers off into more spacey territory. Other tracks, like "Empire V" combine a light mood with a technical rhythm with spacey keyboards. "Haribol" is one of those compositions where you can hear the acoustic sitar. "Horizon" with its beautiful soaring guitar melodies and nice synthesizer solo is a welcome rest point. The title track and "To The Sky" combining different progressive elements into the songs, mood and tempo changes, powerful parts that go alongside subtle keyboards parts and lots of soloing. "Outro" and "The Cold Spring" bonus track are also two nice tracks.

Conclusion: "Wizard's Eyes" will appeal to a fairly broad audience and prog guitar melodic fans will like it. Even the jazz rock and fusion fans should take a listen to it because there are lots of elements to discover on this interesting album. At times the music goes off in different musical directions and the songs feature lots of musical change ups and changing guitar sounds. Paradoxically, for a supposed prog metal album, we can find on it progressive jazz fusion with a touch of metal. Velychko impressed me with his skillful guitar. He is technically very skilled. The keyboard parts and the other instruments played on the album bring the so needed diversity to this album, besides an excellent rhythm section. If you like jazz fusion, this is a very interesting and surprising proposal. Check this album and you'll not regret.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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