TO SHATTER ALL ACCORD

Discipline are another modern band guilty of rehashing the 70s symphonic prog style with very little to add. But rather than copying the usuals like Yes or Genesis, they picked a less obvious choice and for me, this works in their favour.

If you take the band Van Der Graaf Generator, add a lot more guitar, lean it closer to rock than jazz, and add some mellotronic lushness, you get To Shatter All Accord. The dark and somber tone, eccentricity, vocalist - it's all quite similar. Although this Peter Hammill impersonator differentiates himself by singing with a less open mouth, which I don't enjoy as much.

The production has a fairly live and raw approach, and combined with the organ and mellotron we get that nice vintage 70s vibe. As with most prog of this persuasion, there's enough variation to keep things interesting - soft parts, rock parts, jazzy parts, rhythmically complex parts, and some sax and violin thrown in.

The songs are pretty strong, with striking and unexpected lyrical imagery and thoughtfully composed guitar solos. My only real complaint would be that 'When the Walls Are Down' and 'When She Dreams She Dreams in Color', become too repetitive towards the end, especially the latter which repeats the same chord sequence for 8 minutes!

What keeps me coming back is the masterwork 'Rogue'. It's a sinister epic with its middle instrumental section being the absolute highlight of the album and something to lose yourself in. The atmospheric build up followed by utter chaos with the vocalist's abstract screeching is enthralling and creative. But I must admit the song does lose its dark intrigue toward the end, with perhaps a little too much reliance on guitar soloing.

Despite being mostly derivative of the classics, this is a good listen.

7/10