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3-LockBox
10-22-2004, 05:45 PM
About a year or so ago I came upon a recommendation for the first disc, <i>The Colour of Space</i>. I found it to be a good freshman album, with the usual prog trappings, and a sound that is derrivative of early '80s <b>Rush</b>, but nonetheless, a good first album. The musicianship was tight and the writing very competant in both lyrical content and structure, and the lead singer wasn't bad, but not great. After listening to the album off and on over the last year, I found myself really rooting for these guys, and I sort of had my hopes up for the second release; I was in for a let-down.

The second album retains the same level of writing and musicianship, but the first lead singer is bye-bye (had to move?), though he is mentioned in the credits as a contributing writer. As lack-luster as his vocals were on the first effort, he is sorely missed on this outing, which is a shame, because the music portion of this disc is particularly good. The album is a bit pretentious in that it is presented as one piece of contiguous music (43 min) and it isn't pulled off very well, sounding forced here and there. But there are some very good musical moments where this band seems like a focused, veteran group (I'd say for the most part). If the singing were on a par with the music, the rest of you would know who this group is already. But it isn't. And its not like these guys have voices you need to get used to, they just flat out suck. Two of them share vocal duties as well as play, and play well they do. They remind me of how a younger, raw <b>Spock's Beard</b> might have sounded a year prior to <i>The Light</i>. But Neal Morse sounds like frikkin Placido Domingo compared to these guys.

I still find myself wanting to root for these guys, but they desperately need a lead singer, or they need to emerse themselves in vocal lessons. Time will also tell how dependant they were on the original singer, since he was the primary writer. But as is, they are definately aren't ready for a major contract yet. Or a minor one either.