JOURNEY THROUGH THE HIDDEN GARDENS

When I first saw the album cover I was fairly convinced that what I would be hearing would be a doom album, so to say I was somewhat surprised when I put this on and realized that here was yet another top quality Polish prog act is something of an understatement. Apparently the band made their breakthough when they supported Riverside on a national tour and it was from there that they were invited to record this their debut album which was released in 2010 but has only just come to my attention. Poland seems to have way more than their fair share of great prog acts, and on the basis of their debut Disperse should soon be gaining the same sort of attention that is normally reserved for Riverside, Quidam, Millenium and the like.

For the most part this is prog metal, but with large amounts of neo-prog thrown in for good measure. It is hard to pick out a highlight from the album as it is so good throughout, and while the guys are all strong musicians it is the guitar of Jakub Żytecki that really takes this to the next level. They say that they are heavily influenced by bands as diverse as Cynic, Toto, Portal, Aeon Spoke, Planet X, Devin Townsend and Allan Holdsworth, and they certainly manage to capture the fluidity of Holdsworth's guitar solos. There is loads of atmosphere on this album, and the result is something that is polished and packed full of emotion. Given that this is now two years old we can only hope that there is a new album due sometime soon.