STARFOOTED

Talented US act formed in 1993 in San Jose,California by guitarist Malcolm Smith,focusing on covering Genesis songs in their early years.By mid-90's with addition of Jim Post on bass and John Mabry on vocals,replacing brothers Vince and Robert Montia respectively,METAPHOR started composing their own material.By the end of 1998 the band entered Suspect Studios in Sunnyvale,Califonia to record their debut album.''Starfooted'' was ready the next year,when they were signed by Galileo Records.The dream came true...

Professionalism is actually what fully characterizes this album.From the shorter track to the more extended ones,everything in here is carefully arranged and every note seems to be in the right place at the right time.Obvious influences come from the Symphonic Rock scene,so fans of GENESIS,YES,SPOCK'S BEARD and even MARILLION and IQ will find plenty to like in ''Starfooted''.Add to these symphonic influences some complicated GENTLE GIANT-like twists and you are totally in the game.Guitar work ranges from dramatic HACKETT-ish inspired melodic stuff to to more energetic grooves,close to IQ's Mike Holmes.Very good stuff indeed and moreover you can add the excellent and varied keyboard work of Marc Spooner.You won't face only the familiar and well-arranged organ and synth sounds in ''Starfooted''.Prepare yourself for some awesome piano performance and surprisingly there is even some vintage harpsichord sounds to be heard throughout.On the other hand I personally discover a slight black hole of compositional structure to the longer tracks.Beware:this is excellent stuff as well,but the themes seem not to stick that much to each other.Despite their heavily GENESIS- influenced music,I would more likely compare METAPHOR to bands trying to fully re-capture the vintage 70's spirit and thus,SPOCK'S BEARD,THE FLOWER KINGS,STRANGEFISH or MAGIC PIE fans will propably get thrilled a bit more than other fans.

''Starfooted'' is pure and Classic Progressive Rock of the old school.Lots (and I mean it) of great music will fill your time with memorable moments.The problem is that this excellency of some tracks won't follow the whole album...and this is the main problem of nowadays too extended CD's. However about 50 minutes of really nice music will lead to a fair 3.5 rating.Certainly a band to watch and a very strong (and of course recommended) debut!