OUT OF MYSELF

Listening to this debut album I'm a bit concerned about the subgenre in which the band is included, unless Pink Floyd can be defined progressive metal as well. Of course there are heavy guitars and some screams so they can fit in some ways in that genre, but listen to the first track:

The radio which introduces this long song can remind to similar entrances: Wish You Were Here, One Of My Turns, Is There Anybody Out There, and also Gilmour's Castellorizon and Waters' The Ballad Of Bill Hubbard. It's totally floydian but when the drums enter the song we are between Porcupine Tree and Ozric Tentacles, so it's like saying "it's totally floydian". An excellent instrumental (the first half) as first track of a debut album is very promising. After about 5 minutes the signature changes. The bass seems played by Richard Sinclair while the guitar plays a very good melody. Just three words: I like it. The second half of "The Same River" has lyrics. It can considered as a separate song as it's totally different from the instrumental part. However it's as good as that. A five stars song for me.

The bass which introduces "Out Of Myself" remains on the same chords. It's a sort of follow- up to the previous song, but it's darker. The signature on this song is enough to justify the presence of this band on PA. Porcupine Tree fans, if you're not disturbed by screaming (just here and there, it's mainly clean vocals) this is for you.

Some gimmicks, crowd voices, a keyboard backbone and a whispering voice. When the 12- strings guitar overcomes I think first to Mostly Autumn then to Porcupine Tree. A melodic acoustic song in PT style, "I believe".

A clock....background noises like a nightmare just before waking-up. It doesn't explode into ringings like Pink Floyd's Time. It's heavy rock instead. Again an odd signature carried on by the bass on which the guitar plays few long notes in a jazzy riff. It's "Reality Dream". There's a bit of neo-prog inside, too. A very good track. "Loose Heart" may be Marillion, also the guitar cries like Steve Rothery's. The sounds are just a little heavier but this is a melodic song with a background keyboard's violins, harping guitar and a melancholic feeling. Riverside probably realised that the song was too commercial so the last minute turns into metal-screamo.

"Reality Dream II" opens in reality. There's initially a no-line tone then the guitar starts screaming. Between Pink Floyd and Dream Theater. With some passages which remind to Vangelis "Blade runner End Titles" of course a hard rock version.

The 12-strings guitar and the whispered voice who open "In Two Minds" have a strong Porcupine Tree flavor, but when the whisper becomes a clean voice the changes to falsetto and back remind more to Steve Hogarth. A very nice song anyway.

Harmonics start "The Curtain Falls". The sound of the guitar (looks like an ovation) is very particular. The song is initially again between PT and Marillion, but I hear a bit of Genesis in the guitar riffs, too. After 3 minutes the bass introduces a different section of the song that I suppose was intended as a short suite instead of a long song. Apart some backing vocals it's an excellent instrumental. It grows heavy then apparently calms down, but the bass maintains the same rhythm. I think it should be fantastic performed live.

The closer, "OK", is slow and atmpspheric. Vocals in Porcupine Tree style on Floydian chords. It's another excellent song with a nice acoustic guitar part and some jazzy flavor. Its only defect is that it could have been exploited more. There was room for making it a suite.

After some seconds of silence there's a sort of ghost track, just 3 seconds of a choir. I can't stand with this kind of things. I don't like ghost tracks or ghost anything. They don't add a bit to an album and make just the total time increase on the album cover.

Apart of that, that's unfortunately quite common since the CD era, this is an excellent and surprising debut. Basing on this album only I don't see why they are considered Progressive Metal instead of heavy-prog, but they are on PA and this is enough, so I don't care too much of it, only don't expect to hear anything very heavy.

Good listen to everybody