TIMELIGHT

Portland based quartet TIMELIGHT recently have succeeded to add their first eponymous contribution to the prog circle. Accomplishing a leading role with certainty, Chris Rudolf (guitar, keys) is responsible for the compositions as well as mixing and mastering here. Additionally Ron Murvihill (keys, flute), drummer Steve Lauer and Stevie Williams (bass, keys) are part of the crew. Concerning the instrumental skills this leaves nothing to be desired. And the five partially extended songs are offering a rather heavy progressive rock variant, provided with some distinct leanings to AOR here and there.

The album starts with The Law Of Identity, sounding relatively average and innocent initially, also due to the vocals. But hey, while gradually developing its unique atmosphere, this affair is definitely prospering throughout - so please take your time! While showing some Eagles/Poco flair, with Genomes the album matures more and more, is developing into a rather interesting unpredictable flow overall. This includes a varied keyboard and guitar presence, evolving to something pleasantly surprising. Also, some songs are decorated with nice flute contributions, and even something like a howling dog or wolf is striking on the atmospheric Normalcy Blindness by way of example.

Overall their music is surely consisting of a rather common and proven formula, featuring a typical piano intro here, bombast keyboards there, alternating between balladesque acoustic guitar parts and slicing guitar riffs representing a heavy rocking drive. This arranged with a quite entertaining approach though, not sounding like 'old wine in new skins' at all. Which finally attracted my attention amongst those multiple albums already arriving on the scene this year. You will find some captivating pieces on this self-released production. Thus it's definitely worth it to smell at the bottle on their bandcamp page at first.