PORTMAN

Make that closer to 3.5 stars really. What PORTMAN brings on this album is one of those modern blends of instrumental heavy prog that is a lot under influence of post rock, which is the initial genre that a lot of people would think of putting them in as soon as you hear guitars with a lot of delay effects (which must be like a trademark of post rock by now, I mean I hear it everywhere). There is a lot of metal sound going around as well, which balances things out; with quite rapid changes from moody atmosphere to heavy guitar riffs, something that PORCUPINE TREE likes to do so much. While I didn't really get into post rock yet I think PORTMAN's indie or alternative rock melodies are those which made it quite accessible enough for me in the first place. Some time ago they had a cover of the famous ROBERT MILES trance hit "Children" from the 90's, so if you can imagine a heavy/post-rock album where this doesn't feel out of place, you probably have a good feel for it. I think in some quieter passages or smaller segments of songs, original PORTMAN's songs could be reworked in some kind of dream trance as well. So yeah, accessible melodies here. The album does lose a bit of my attention as it goes to the end, being instrumental as it is it's a bit harder to remember the song details when they get a bit repetitive. Also what maybe raised my bar for the rest of the album are the first two tracks which are just great, and maybe a bit more in fashion like stoner rock then the rest of the album. All in all, it's not amazing all the time but it has it's moments and it's an enjoyable listen.