DAYS

It would seem that Wojtek Szadkowski is incapable of being involved in a bad album. While he tried to re-energize the Satellite saga with their latest offering, my preference is his Peter Pan offshoot, which really is something different, without any history or a particular sound to live up to. Wojtek's fascination with Peter Pan (the story) is already documented in the "Never Never" track of Satellite's "Evening Games", but here he dedicates an entire album to the idea that even aging rockers can play hard prog with a metallic sheen.

The CD is flawed to be sure, as the sound is about as synthesized as you can get, the vocals, by the front man himself (PP, or WS) are a bit odd, and the lyrics are minimalist both in quality and quantity. But the star is Radek Chwieralski on lead guitar who manages to bleed every drop out of his muse in frenetic fashion. Several hearings reveal heartfelt melodies underneath the raucous exterior, especially in the verses of the two openers, as well as the bluesy instrumental "Flying Over Paradise" which follows seamlessly from "Smiling in the Rain". While the album is not uniformly heavy, that is the prevailing quality, though it manages to transition brilliantly between moods (especially in "Island"), which is an area where the last Satellite album failed badly.

If you are really expecting and demanding something in the neo progressive genre, this may disappoint you on first or fifth listen, and it is not for every mood, but it works really well when you are having one of those Days.