PRECIOUS SECONDS

I read the blurb about this group quite a while back, and it said, (I kid you not!) that this band have similarities to Pendragon and Pink Floyd, but also have their own distinguishable sound. So, without hearing anything by them, I took the chance and bought the cd. Well...what a disappointment! Really, this reminds me of a pub/club band, playing weak and unoriginal rock music, which has been elongated to make it sound more like prog. (Which it isn't). A brief overview of the tracks should suffice here. Track one, "Livin' A Lie" starts off with a substandard and very dodgy sound that is reminiscent of a poor man's Pendragon, reminding one a little of "Walls Of Babylon, the superb opener on "The Window Of Life" Unfortunately, this band are nowhere near Pendragon's league. The guitar intro is laboured and plagiaristic to say the least. However, as the keyboards, bass and drums kick in, it does improve a little, as the guitar recedes into the background and makes a nice pleasant sound. Then comes another solo, this one a little better and more biting. At this point, when I first heard this track, I dared to think that things might be improving, and relaxed a little. Unfortunately, it is at this point that the vocals first appear...oh dear, oh dear! I don't wish to insult anyone, and I will apologise at this point to the band, and their families and fans, should any of them read this, but it is, after all, only my opinion. The vocals remind one of any number of second rate bands who tour religiously round the clubs, or support slightly bigger acts at small venues. This voice, whilst not absolutely bad, just does not suit this music. It reminded me of any number of average, non-distinctive bands that appeared in the late 70's - early 80's. The lyrics are very average too, being typical, non demanding entities in a straight rock mode. Just because this, (and the other tracks) are all long things, it doesn't make them prog! Anyway, track two, "Run Before You Walk" has some nice piano in it, but nothing spectacular, the melody is bland and the vocals are weaker than on the first song. The keyboard plod along at the end too, as if programmed by a computer. Now we come to track three, "From Afar". Does anyone remember Opportunity Knocks, a T.V. talent show from the seventies? Well, it seldom had 'groups' on it, but, when they did appear, they sounded like this! Oh, and the weak voice is out of tune on the chorus too. Olivia Newton-John would like this! And it goes on too long as well! Sorry, but this is the worst track on the album. "More Than I Deserve", track four, again has nice, but predictable piano. The melody is obvious, the guitar no more than ordinary, and there is too much symbol work here. Sometimes the playing gets a little faster, as if they are trying to add some punch and attitude. But it just sounds like the speed dial has come loose! Finally (yesssssss!) we have track five, "The Last Great Climb", the longest piece on offer here, at over twenty minutes! I groaned as this started, wondering if I could survive another twenty minutes. But surprise! This is a little better. The intro is nice, and the build up is good. The vocals are more palatable here and the whole piece seems to hang together better. Nevertheless, the lyrics are abysmal and uninspiring, and, again, there is nothing here we haven't heard, in a better form, somewhere before. The chorus is too sweet and poppy. Middle of the road, but still the best track on the album, followed by the first opener. As I said before, I apologise to anyone who likes this band, but this sounds as rough as a demo. If it was, I could understand it, but it isn't. More worryingly, neither is it their debut disc. If this is an improvement on that, well...I don't wish to hear it! Doubtless there will be many who listen to this and think it is well delivered modern prog, but, believe me, it isn't. There is no danger here, no surprise, nothing to make the listener go 'wow!'. The keyboards are decent, and the bass, throughout the album, is quite good. But there is nothing more to be gained from this. I have played it four times, just to make sure it wasn't me who was missing something. But I am not. For fans only.

Although being far from an essential prog album their second effort is at least much better than the previous one. This album consists of five very long tracks with guitar lines reminiscent of Camel, some keyboard solos every now and then and bass/drums that are not excellent but quite okay. All the tracks are presented in a constant flow of sound with some nice moments of surprise, i.e. last part of track 1 which sounds like early Earth Band or track 2 which is getting almost bluesy towards the end. Vocals by Chris Campbell are far from being perfect, but okay at least in the softer sections. On this one the band is not so much repeating every well-known neo prog cliché as on the previous album. Nevertheless the tracks could be much shorter as well, the length is promising somehow a bit more than one gets finally during listening. It's quite nice music, but not very original or inspired and one cannot call it a good prog album. The only track being a bit better than the rest is the last, longest one, but still I can't get that much fascinated about it and it's definitively too long.

Sorry to the band and their fans, but even after I listened repeatedly to their second album which is still an improvement to their debut, I'm not convinced of Tr3nity being an essential band in prog or a great hope for the future of English progressive music. The music is just not original enough, more or less mediocre and overblown. Still not good enough for giving 3 stars!

The objective of progarchives is to do your review independent of anyone else and give your opinion about albums. I usually do so but in this case I have to react on the results so far. I don't understand this. Am I from a different planet ? Is this album poor or something ? Am I revieweing the right album here ? An average of 2.86 at the time I'm doing mine, it's unbelievable !

Well, I will not go that far to call this a masterpiece, but in my opinion we are talking about a great album here, with 5 almost symphonic tracks, very good compositions with amazing instrumental passages (especially fantastic guitar !). So, ok I would have understood an average of 3.8 or something but 2.86 ? How are people reviewing this ? It must be neo prog haters or something. I have to admit I'm a neo prog lover (well not all neo prog, but a lot). And this is very good in that department and I possess over a hundred neo prog albums so I have some experience here I think.

I should actually give this 5 stars purely for the compensation, but I'm a fair reviewer. This is a real 4 star effort or even a bit more (4.25) so that's what it's going to be.

This second album from "T3nity" starts as their first one ("Eyes Of A Child").

A long and fully Floydian instrumental part is bringing you back to the likes of "SOYCD". But it is not the first time that neo-prog bands use this fantastic song as their source of inspiration.

But still, it is rather pleasant. This song is fortunately almost instrumental, because the vocal parts are flirting again with the funky / soul mood as during the painful "Which Way" from "The Cold Light Of Darkness Back". It is really strange that this band who offers some pleasant music can turn into such pitiful masquerade (no link at all with the great "Pendragon" album of course).

During this album, the musical passages are good to very good but I have to agree that vocals are difficult to bear and are definitely weakening the whole work. But during "Run Before You Walk", neither of them are memorable; better said it is a weak number. Press next.

You'll reach "From Afar" which is a light song with a nice piano intro. The relation with "Pendragon" is very obvious. It's the situation of a neo-prog band emulating another one. Not quite original but the melodies (piano and guitar) do have this little extra of emotion and beauty that makes me like it very much. Not complex but enjoyable. Especially those superb guitar breaks. The finale is a brilliant explosion of symphonic sounds. The best song from this album, but some other reviewer think it is the worst, so make up your own mind and SHARE it, please.

"More Than I Deserve" has a very similar structure but the smooth intro which is leading to the inevitable guitar solo is a bit longish and repetitive (dull?). It takes about eight minutes to listen to the first captivating notes. But not for long since a minute later the vocals come in .Not convincing at all. Pretty boring actually.

The epic of the album starts almost starts like the opening number. Fully atmospheric and spacey. But only for a minute or so. This song falls quickly flat. It lacks in charismatic moments (but which such a lead vocalist, it would have been difficult), and true and melodic solo are too scarce to be blown away even if, fortunately, Rob Davenport gratifies the listener with some good guitar work. But even these will be so short and too few that it is almost not necessary to mention them.

If you reach the middle of this song, some "Marillion" flavour will probably draw your attention. Vaguely inspired by "Market Square Heroes", the rhythm is picking up joyfully. "Tr3nity" was also deceiving with their epic and closing number on their previous recording. To be honest, I have to say that "The Last Great Climb" is slightly better but when I am confronted to a twenty minute song, I always expect something great of it. And this one just doesn't fulfil my requirements.

Actually, without being so harsh with this album as some of my colleagues, I will conclude with the same rating. Two stars even if five out of ten would be more appropriate. I really hope that this type of rating (half star) will soon be available on PA. That would be a wonderful present. Think about it Max!

I have to agree with Progrules when he talks about this album. My goodness! It´s beautiful! But it took me some time to really enjoy it in its full potential, but when it did, I was hooked. I heard it nonstop all this weekend and I still want more. The music may sound a bit too simple and popish on the surface sometimes, but then you discover many suble details that reveal the truly great progressive work Precious Seconds is inside. With obvious influences of other great bands like Pink Floyd, Camel, Pendragon and the like, they did produce a fantastic sound of their own.

Rob Davenport´s guitar playing is great, reminding me of Andre Latimer sometimes, although they way he plays the acoustic parts is very different. Keyboards could be a little more upfront, but are very good anyway. Bassist Graham Lane does also a fine job (his fretless licks in the beginning of the Last Great Climb is great). Vocalist Chris Campbell has a fine voice and I liked his emotional, sincere delivering.

All the five, long tracks are good. Highlights for me are the opener Livin A Lie (great instrumental 6 minute intro, much in the vein of Camel´s The SnowGoose before the vocals come kickin´ in), the ballad From Afar and the 20 minute epic The Last Great Climb (with its shifting moods and atmospheres).

I´m looking forward to hear their future works. Very promising. I recommend this album to anyone who likes symphonic neo prog in the vein of Camel and Pendragon. Four solid stars.

TR3NITY are a Neo-Prog band out of the UK and this is their second and most recent release from 2004. It's interesting that i'm the first collaborator to give this 3 stars as the rest have given 2 or 4 stars respectively. I really enjoyed parts of this album as I listened to it all of last week, and while it does have it's moments,overall I think 3 stars is fair from my standpoint. We get five long tracks over 68 1/2 minutes.

"Livin A Lie" opens with atmosphere as the guitar soars.The guitar stops before 2 1/2 minutes but the atmosphere continues. Faint spoken words can be heard in the background. Drums and bass before 4 minutes.The guitar comes to the fore after 5 1/2 minutes.Vocals for the first time 7 minutes in. Some nice bass after 9 minutes and the tempo picks up suddenly before 13 minutes and synths join in. "Run Before You Walk" opens with piano as vocals join in. A fuller sound 1 1/2 minutes in which sounds excellent. A calm with piano once again 3 minutes in then it rebuilds.The guitar leads 5 1/2 minutes in and vocals are back a minute later. A guitar solo starts before 8 minutes but it's brief.

"From Afar" has a light intro and reserved vocals join in. Drums then some prominant bass after 4 minutes.Vocals are back before 8 minutes. A pleasant track. "More Than I Deserve" opens with piano and fragile vocals.The vocals stop after 3 minutes and don't return until before 9 minutes. In between we get some good instrumental work that builds before 4 minutes then levels out. "The Last Great Climb" is the over 20 minute closer. Atmosphere to start and vocals come in around a minute. Piano, drums and bass kick in after 2 minutes. A tasteful guitar solo before 8 minutes. A couple of prolonged instrumental passages come and go before this one ends.

A good album that Neo-Prog fans should check out.

Tr3nity from UK is quite an obscure neo prog band with 2 albums in their pockets so far. Their second offer from 2004 named Precious seconds is to me a fairly good album towards great. I see that this type of melodic mid tempo kind of neo prog is not so loved here like in other prog pages, but I don't care I like what I've heared here a lot so to me is more then ok record. Five pieces here from 10 min to 20 min in length, with lots of instrumental sections but aswell lots of vocal parts aswell. As I said the music is very melodic, but is well balanced some excellent keybords in contrast with guitars make from some pieces a real treasures like From afar, More then I desearve and the ending epic The last great climb, all al very strong neo prog pieces that show that this band really knew to play this style very well. I like the smooth , calm vocal tone of Chris Campbell that is fiting very well here. Don't expect some Marillion , IQ influences here, Tr3nity have their own style more or less. Maybe in places they remind me of bands like Like Wendy, Ricocher and those who have a more melodic aproach to their neo roots. To me easy 4 stars, I like a lot this album and no complains from me, from beautiful vocal lines, to the instrumental passages this is a real deal in neo prog zone.

So Tr3nity are back with their second album, following on from their superb 'The Cold Light Of Darkness'. This is another concept but the subject matter this time is a bit more cheery than the last ' to get the story go to www.tr3nity.com for more details. Tr3nity have moved on: they are still one of the UK's undiscovered prog bands but they are yet again fulfilling their objective, 'music with a purpose'. While their music still brings in elements of bands such as Camel and Pendragon, there is also more than a hint of Saga and even Styx in what they are doing.

Five songs, each more then ten minutes long, with the closing 'The Last Great Climb' managing to just break the twenty minute barrier. There is so much space in this music that is possible to get inside it and have a rest on one of the held down keyboard chords, and just let the mind move with the swirling in and out. Two minutes into the last song and there is a change in tempo brought in by the introduction of piano which could have some straight from 'Wish You Were Here' - sounding nothing like Floyd but identical at the same moment.

When I played their debut album I found that it took me a while to get into it, as I felt that the lyrics jarred slightly with the music but it eventually won me over. No such problem this time as straight from the first playing I fell in love with it ' I am sure that all progheads into good music will want to discover this British band.

Originally appeared in Feedback #79, June 2004