THE PERFECT MAP

I've been following the North American band Elephants Of Scotland from the beginning, and since then, I've come to listen to all the material the band has released so far and I have 2 CDs of them in my collection.

Overall, in my opinion, the band was always 'OK'. No more than that. The group was full of good intentions, good ideas, but sometimes I have this impression that the band was 'rushing' with their arrangements and recordings in the euphoria of releasing a new album. The band started in 2011 and in 6 years have 3 studio albums and 1 live release!

I get the impression that this was fixed on The Perfect Map, the group's latest album. When you hear the record you can feel that the material has been rehearsed and thought for a long time. It is also good to see that the band, despite the clear influence of classic Progressive Rock of the 70's, can have a sound of their own in the new album.

For me one of the low points of the group's sound, always has been the vocals of Adam Rabin. I get the feeling they are aware of that, in the new record his vocals seem more concise, more 'trained' and they even have a guest vocalist Megan Beaucage in the track "One By Sea". However, the weaker moments of the album still lay on the weak vocals, like in 'Swing The Gavel'.

Overall The Perfect Map is an album that should appeal to any fan of the classic Progressive Rock period but who still likes to search for new and high quality material in the same classic line!

Available on Bandcamp.