UNDER THE SUN

I almost gave this CD a 5 star rating but could not quite due to the fact that in my opinion there are 2 songs not deserving that status (Seeing Eye God and Dream Catcher) But those 2 songs only make up 10 min. of a 67 min. CD. All the other 8 songs (again, in my opinion) are perfect. Under The Sun are a nice brew of prog rock and prog metal. There are no ball squeezing vocals thank god. As a matter of fact it's Chris Shryack's clear, John Wetton like tone (although Chris will sometimes sing higher then Mr. Wetton could comfortably) that 1st caught my ear on the 1st listen of this CD. I would imagine the drummer, Paul Shkut had Neil Peart for some inspiration as his grooves share the same characteristics (nimble ride patterns, great high hat work and best of all...a groove that makes odd time signatures seem like 4/4.) Under The Sun also share another thing with Rush. The CD was mixed by Terry Brown who was responsible for the sound of many Rush albums. If I was to use 1 word to describe U.T.Ss sound it would be "Shimmering". The Key's, voice, guitar even the drum's (at times) seem to have this quality about them. And it's not a bad thing nor is it overstated and it took me awhile to think of exactly what it was that made this band sound different from other well produced prog bands. I am not going to go into a blah, blah about each song. All I can say about Under The Sun is they have their very own distinctive style in production, song writing and musicianship. And what else can you ask for in the true nature of progressive music.