This is definitely progressive rock. It’s also definitely rather strange. I’d have to put it as pretty squarely in the center of old school and neo-prog categories. It seems to me that the production hurts this a bit in that at times it doesn’t feel that the layers of sound merge all that well into one unit. All that said, this covers tons of musical ground and it’s the type of progressive rock that shifts dramatically. There are three epics on store here, too.
Track by Track Review
Vector
State of the Art Love Song Coming in a bit like Rush meets Dream Theater, they take this out to something perhaps more akin with The Buggles. As this carries on, though, there’s an instrumental excursion that makes me think of the first incarnation of Yes and then I hear some King Crimson before they shift out into a killer ELP-like keyboard dominated movement. A reprise of the song proper ends it.
Transcendence (Culture of Hospice) An epic piece, this weighs in at over fourteen minutes in length. Pretty acoustic guitar starts and holds it for a time moving through a number of changes. Just before the one minute mark keys come in and shift the track out into a different section. We get a balladic motif as it carries forward, resembling ELP quite a bit. The keyboards solo over this backdrop. The vocals join after a time. A brief instrumental bit serves as separation between the two verses. Then they launch out into a full on jam that has bits of Yes and ELP in it – in addition to other groups. After a time, though, this gives way to a reprise of the main verse segment – but with a more stripped down and rather weird feeling to it. Then we get a rather dissonant jazz section before they shift it out to a keyboard dominated slow moving segment. That portion takes us to around the five and a half minute mark. Then they move out into some serious weirdness. Vocals return with an almost random feeling the music and vocal line. All this weirdness takes us past the nine minute mark. Then they shift out to more melodic prog before dropping back down to acoustic guitar. This is built back up into a more full band performance. A few changes take it before they take us out into a killer Eastern tinged instrumental movement that’s pretty awesome and then into some fusion. We get an ELP-like section beyond that. And then it resolves into a different prog section that takes us to a keyboard crescendo. Weird piano and vocals return after the false ending this created. This section is just a short closing one, though.
Milwaukee (an essay on morbid hysteria) If the last one was an epic than this is War and Peace. It is a multi-segment quite that weighs is almost twenty two minutes in length. I believe this is about Jeffrey Dahmer. They bring it in feeling like something from Ozzy Osbourne. Keys come in over the top of this and begins to show some signs of weirdness here and there as they carry forward. Rather than move out into pure prog with this basis, though, they drop it back to a piano driven motif that is along the lines of RIO. This plays through and then ends. Then more metallic guitar rises up – with a spoken vocal line over the top. A vocal and keyboard section announces that, “I’m so tired of this” and they continue by reworking this mode. The keys carry on by themselves and take us through several variants before the vocals return. Then we’re back to the metal guitar from there. This mode, with some weirdness added to the mix, holds it for a while – with vocals joining. Then some Emerson-like keyboard sounds take us through the next change. From there we get a new prog instrumental section and then a drop down to just piano and vocals. Around the six and a half minute mark there’s a cool part that moves between the two speakers and then they take it out into a neo-prog jam that’s rather fusion in nature. We’re taken to some Rush-like jamming for a time and then back to vocal based oddities. This is eventually morphed into an almost catchy vocal section that has some keys over the top. It gives us a false ending at around eight minutes and forty five seconds – or so. Then keys take it for a very short period before piano and voice come back in to bring us into the next mode. Some backwards guitar is put in here and then some cool keyboard voicing are added. They drop it back to atmosphere before a cool jazzy, melodic motif brings us into new territory. Vocals are added to this mix and it carries on with some minor variants from there. A tasty guitar solo emerges after a time. Vocals rejoin here. From there we get more movement from speaker to speaker as they give us a rather Dream Theater-like jam with some serious crunch. We get another vocal segment and then more instrumental work before a multilayered vocal section takes it in new directions. A rather noisy fusion oriented section gives way to an ELP-like jam later. Eventually this gives way to another vocal movement. Then a hard rocking movement takes it for a while as the guitar solos. Keyboards drive it once more after that. We’re back in “Bark at the Moon” territory around the nineteen minute mark and then we get a rather Rush-like section from there. This just continues working through changes and alterations. We get various sections returning and leaving again as they work this towards its closing. Keyboards take it at the end to work us out to a melodic resolution segment that serves as the final section of the piece by fading away.
Cul-de-sacs of Venus Feeling like a mini-pop piece since it’s less than four and a half minutes in length. This instrumental starts off quite jazzy and works through a number of variations and alterations as it carries forward. At times it even feels a bit Celtic. There’s a rather Pink Floyd-like guitar solo segment later.
Voyager Coming in between the other two epics in terms of length, this is a four part suite that’s almost seventeen and a half minutes long. Keyboards start it with a fanfare that calls to mind ELP and eventually this is moved out into a moody and dark mellow texture. As this builds it feels a bit like Porcupine Tree, but it really works into some very dark territory. You might also make out some Pink Floyd on this and some King Crimson and Rush when it powers up. They drop it way down for some jazzy and yet classically oriented soundtrack type music. Later they take us down a road that reminds me of Traffic meeting Pink Floyd. A killer melodic jam ensues from there. It gets pretty intense as they carry on. They take us through a new segment that’s more guitar oriented later and then power out in a killer jam from there. From there they move through a series of variants and alterations and at times this feels quite a bit like Rush.
