I AM ANONYMOUS

Calling their debut full-length I Am Anonymous is a ballsy move on the part of Headspace, particularly since progressive metal is a reasonably crowded field with an audience hungry for novelty - had they released an album a little too generic and derivative of pioneers in the style, they'd have written their own epitaph with the title. As it stands, the album does often sound rather... well... anonymous, with the prog metal checklist ticked off in rote fashion, but it's buoyed up somewhat by subtle, nuanced performances by Adam Wakeman on keyboards and Damian Wilson on vocals. From the paranoid refrain of "They know now!" on Stalled Armageddon onwards, it's clear that Wilson has a real knack for getting to the emotional core of a composition, whilst Wakeman manages to combined technically impressive keyboard work with a deft sense of when to seize the spotlight and when to give the other performers space to do their thing. Not a classic, but a good example of this sort of prog metal project, even if the title does cut a bit too close to home.