HALF WAY HOME

Two old teenage bandmates frok the North-Eastern part of England decided to form this project in 2007.Multi-instrumentalist Andy Ditchfield teamed up with singer Tony Wright after many years and DeeExpus became reality, following the already prepared ideas of the first.The initial plan was to form a proper group, but the two decided to write down the material for the first album on their own forces.A team of guest musicians was gathered in order to record this debut work, these were guitarist Phil Sloane, bassist Ian Raine and drummer Leigh Crowther.The album, entitled ''Half way home'', was independently released in 2008.

DeeExpus belong to the second incarnation of Neo Prog groups, which started to add heavier overtones in their music, still retaining some of the magic from the old years.Good things is the band sounds pretty flexible, incredibly passionate and dymamic and sufficiently inspired to offer long tracks with dominant guitars, clean yet expressive vocals and a fair number of keyboard acrobatics.The production is good and the arrangements are interesting with accesible lyrical material, pounding rhythmic tones and some impressive, bombastic sections.Although less symphonic in nature than the earlier bands of the style, DeeExpus manage to deliver music with endless energy, grandiose moments and lots of modern colors, featuring sound effects, vocal distortions and metallic guitar riffing.The enviroment remains proggy enough with numerous changing moods and alternating tempos, passing from emotional songwriting to powerful instrumental themes with comfort.On the other hand their first effort fails a bit in terms of originality, sounding somewhere between ARENA, PORCUPINE TREE and KNIGHT AREA, combining the great vocals with powerful guitars and sharp keyboards with constant presence of more laid-back piano textures.The songwriting though is solid enough to satisfy fans of modern Prog Rock.

Good to great debut, which seems to contain an inner spark, ready to set everything on fire in the not too distant future.Bombastic and mascular Neo/Heavy Prog with efficient keyboard and guitar waves.Recommended.