THE SEA WITHIN

The Sea Within is a musical project/supergroup put together by German progressive rock label Inside Out Music in 2017, composed of an all-star lineup featuring members of The Flower Kings, Pain of Salvation, and Kansas, namely guitarist Roine Stolt, bass player Jonas Reingold, vocalist Gildenlöw, drummer Marco Minnemann, and keyboard player Tom Brislin, currently a member of Kansas. This collective is joined by Flying Colors singer Casey McPherson for their 2018 self-titled debut album (and as of 2025, sole release under this name), and while some might have expected a more flamboyant symphonic prog crossover, the music of The Sea Within is more of an eclectic mixture of mellow, dreamy and textured art rock, attempting to catch a somewhat "oceanic", floating feel, almost like a modern and livelier version of Pink Floyd.

The entire album exudes this cinematic and almost pop sensibility, which is quite a welcome experiment for the band members, considering their different backgrounds - the balance between the vocals of Gildenlöw and McPherson is nice and quite effective, all while the music remains tranquil and pensive, at times even tediously mellow, perhaps reflected in the lyrics and the peculiar but gorgeous album art. Among all that, Marco Minnemann's performance impresses as particularly outstanding, his fills and grooves become the essential drivers of many of the songs and he successfully manages to instill a liveliness to the band. The guitar playing is finely controlled and occasionally bluesy, nothing overly flashy and complex, while the keys are in that classic rock vein, which is definitely suitable for the music produced by this collective. Songs which ultimately end up as exemplary of the supergroup's style are the dramatic opener 'Ashes of Dawn', the melancholic tunes 'They Know My Name' and 'Time' (a touch of Floyd is inevitable here), the rather accessible and well-arranged songs 'The Void' and 'Goodbye', while the big 14-minute opus 'Broken Cord' lacks that edge and charisma that other entries on here exhibit. Closing track 'The Hiding of Truth' is forgettable, too, and the four-track bonus disc brings nothing overly exciting to the table - this record can be great at times, and can get boring at others.

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