SELAH!

By the time of Timelight's second album, 'Selah!', there had been some significant changes and the band had now become a studio only project of Chris Rudolf (guitars, keyboards, bass, vocals, production) and Ron Murvihill (keyboards, flute, drum programming, vocals), with the addition of guest bassist Ian Siegel on 3 of the 6 songs. As with the debut, most of the songs are lengthy (just one under 5 and all the others past 10), yet here it feels that Murvihill has had a much larger impact on the material and he and Rudolf are very much linked. As well as more keyboards in general, there is a much greater use of piano, which has major impact in some places, such as on the title cut which is huge in so many ways. While I have never been a fan of programming, it must be said that here it has been done incredibly well, and one can imagine this being played by a human and is far more innovative and all over the kit than much I have heard.

Whereas the debut showed lots of promise, this is more about fulfilling that aim and the result is an album which is incredibly powerful. This does not sound like a project, but by a full band who went into the studio and rocked. There are a lot more keyboards here, yet the guys are still very much in the American Nineties prog mould, with plenty of rock guitars when the time is right. The guys also play to their strengths with long instrumental passages, but whereas some bands use these as an excuse for self-congratulatory solos or meandering elements which go nowhere, here they have purpose and direction and fit within the theme of the song. The vocals do take some getting used to, but musically this is an incredibly powerful unit, and the underlying piano and rock guitar often combine to create something very special indeed.

Both this and the debut are easy to find on Bandcamp, and fans of a combination of prog and American melodic rock should seek them out.