SURFACE SERENE

"Surface Serene" is the second full-length studio album by US, Florida based progressive rock act Little Atlas. The album was independently released in 2003. It´s the successor to "Neverwordly" from 1998. Little Atlas had some serious lineup issues after recording their debut album, but a few of the key members carried on and recruited new blood and were thus able to record "Surface Serene".

Stylistically this is a very American sounding progressive rock release. In some ways Little Atlas has an approcah to writing music which isn´t far from Kansas. They don´t sound like Kansas, but the prominent use of hard rocking electric guitars paired with the occassionally more symphonic and mellow progressive rock moments just sounds very American in it´s form. Little Atlas have a college rock edge to some parts of their music which really aren´t that great, and again that´s the American influences which are strong in their music. So while Little Atlas arguably have some great progressive moments throughout the album (when they let go on the keyboards it sounds great), they also have some pretty standard quality rock elements, which aren´t that interesting.

Little Atlas are a well playing unit, and lead vocalist Steve Katsikas (also keyboards and acoustic guitars) has a pleasant and strong delivery. The sound production is decent, but not excellent. Overall "Surface Serene" is still a decent quality progressive rock release and a 3 star (60%) rating isn´t all wrong.