SUFFOCATING THE BLOOM

I remember hearing Echolyn quite often on a progressive rock radio "prog.fm" in the 00's and was never impressed by the music of this band as I found it pretty standard and non-spectacular. Then I finally got round to listening their entire album with high ratings on progarchives - "Suffocating the bloom". That was a different experience I must admit. The music is quite varied and even though I'm not a fan of the vocals here, there is a solid instrumentation basis. One catchy song that stays with me is "Winterthru" that reminds of a bit of late 70's Genesis. If you want an early Genesis feeling, just stay with the next one "Memoirs from between" - what a pastoral innocent feeling. I like the robust rhythm and perhaps stronger drummer presence in the mix. Over to other tracks - there is a good balance of upbeat and mellow compositions, even if the mellow ones are shorter. The suite is a pleasure to the ears, mainly due to the vocals being more absent and instruments taking the lead in short motives.

I can say that after hearing this album I belong to the listeners who claim that Echolyn have their own style of playing prog.