RADIO SILENCE

A surprising album. Here we see Dale Simmons, one of many of modern crossover prog's singer/songwriters, out to make an album about a man going insane with the help of a grab bag of modern prog's great drummers. Of course, this could've been a by-the-numbers, even boring, release - just see most of this year's "Hand. Cannot. Erase" to witness even Steven Flippin' Wilson falling into that trap - and at first, it seems like a one-two-three type deal with the first two tracks. In fact, for those tracks Simmons almost sounds like SWilson. But then, suddenly, "Seeker's Prayer" starts off, and you know that things are about to get serious. Now we see some uniqueness and energy from his compositions and playing. There's plenty of powerful guitar from then on, and the quieter sections are particularly interesting and beautiful. "Dead Reckoning"'s opening even features a nice EDM style opening beat. I can hardly fathom why Simmons would ever include the first two tracks in light of the rest of the album; maybe the power of the last four are supposed to be connected to the narrator's deteriorating mental state. But what's there is there, and most importantly, we have the great tracks. Simmons's guitar is the star of the show, but everyone pulls together well - even if, as the previous reviewer mentioned, the drummers don't pull out their special talents to add even more to the mix. A solid four star effort, some excellent tracks alongside some more middling ones, altogether worthwhile.