OUT OF MYSELF

After reading the largely positive reviews on here, I found this album to be a bit of a disappointment. It's a very assured debut with some excellent playing but overall it's a bit uneven and unfocussed.

Things get off to a good start with the 12 minute opener The Same River, which is built around some lush keyboard sounds and some very Floydian guitar - Porcupine Tree are an obvious point of comparison here, but there are also hints of Ozrics and Radio Gnome era Gong in the interplay between guitar and synths. The vocals are well down in the mix, being used more as another texture than as the focal point. Atmospheric and beguiling, it's a fine slice of contemporary prog.

Unfortunately, the rest of the album never quite fulfills the promise of the opening track, although the instumentals Reality Dream amd Reality II come close ( the sampled telephone noises on Reality II get a bit annoying after the first few listens). What really lets the album down is the occasional descent into plodding prog metal riffing - it sounds like the real band have taken a break and the poodle haired, spandex clad road crew have picked up the instruments. The acoustic interludes are also not so inspired - if they want people to start waving lighters over their heads they'll have to try harder than this.

Out Of Myself is a promising debut from a band with an excellent sound, but the writing slips too frequently into neo prog/prog metal cliches. If they follow the direction indicated by The Same River there may be great things to come from them.