THE APPROBATION

Very well made. Musicianship and production are top-notch. The clean vocals do not convince me, they're whiny in a Steven Wilson sense, which does not go well with the otherwise epic/serene feel.

All in all this is much too derivative for me. It is perfectly fine to be inspired by other artists, but you also need to add interesting elements of your own, or combine influences in really interesting ways. This is just citations after citations, and without any attribution, no less.

Tracks:

2. The Pale Moon (3.5 stars): This sounds like straight off of Blackwater Park, albeit with weaker clean vocals.

4. The Great White River (3.5 stars): Goes from minor to major in harmonically awkward ways. I'm not buying it - sure, artists can and should innovate, but in this case it sounds more like artificially inflating complexity.

5. Arcane Clouds (3.5 stars): Nice build-up towards the end. The first track which does not feel too contrived.

6. Anodyne (3.5 stars): Windowpane - with a bit of fluff.

7. The Approbation (3.5 stars): This starts out quite majestic, only to drift into a Porcupine Tree section, In Absentia era, with the processed vocals and heavy riffing. It then shifts gears, becomes more abstract, to arrive in a King Crimson style frenzy, think PT - C/C meets The Power To Believe. And finally we get back to the majestic intro, for whatever reason (there's no musical connection between these sections).

Originally published at tagyourmusic.org