The Prog Rock Album Club

Unknown Soldier · 03-28-2013, 02:29 PM

1. What were your VERY FIRST impressions on listening to the album, say from the first five minutes in?

The band were extremely accessible due to the power of the vocalist. The songs resonated well with me.

2. What did you think of the opening tracks?

A sign of a good band is that you hear their influences but without ever really pinning them down. I heard slight touches of a huge amount of bands but what amazingly stuck out was how Mariusz Duda actually sounded like Morten Harkett of a-ha!

3. What did you think of the later tracks?

I thought the album was solid throughout and the level of consistently kept up throughout the album.

4. Did you like the vocalist? Hate him/her? Any impressions?

Liked the singer's voice and as Trollheart said his voice is powerful and gentle at the same time. The slight foreign accent that he has is always an appeal to me in a singer and often adds real variety.

5. Did the music (only) generally appeal to you, or not?

Yes the music did appeal to me and surprised me as well. I quickly read up a bit about the band and they were regarded as a a kind of Polish Dream Theater meets Tool. On listening to the band, I think that description is unfair on them as they have their own sound.

6. Did the album get better or worse as you listened to it (first time)?

Only listened to it once due to time restraints for this review, because my review was late.

7. What did you think of the lyrical content?

I always like the lyrics that a non-native English speaking band put out and quite often they come out with lyrics that are well quite foreign. Overall the lyrics were quite poignant sounding.

8. Did you like the instrumental parts?

Overall I enjoyed them and the band do seem accomplished in what they're doing.

9. What did you think of the production?

Wasn't overly impressed with the production and the vocals had been placed very high in the mix, sometimes this works and other times it doesn't. I felt that a better balance here would've been better for the album.

10. How well do you already know the band/artist?

Vaguely knew the name and had no idea that they were Polish.

11. What sub-genre, if any, would you assign this music to?

Progressive metal by today's standards.

12. On repeated listens, did you find you liked the album more, or less?

Only listened to it once so can't say.

13. What would you class as your favourite track, if you have one?

If I had to pick then "Celebrity Touch" just.

14. And the one you liked least?

"We Got Used to Us" may well have been one slow song too many on the opening part of the album.

15. Did the fact that this album is a debut/sophomore/middle period or later period allow it, in your mind, any leeway, and if so, was that decision justified or vindicated?

As I didn't know the band I had no idea on what the quality of the earlier releases would be like.

16. Are you now looking forward to hearing other albums by the band/artist?

A solid yes and I was impressed by what I heard.

17. Did you get, thematically, the idea behind the album if there was one?

Does there have to be one? If there was one I didn't notice it. I'm not really bright on these things and normally need to read about that sort of thing to realise it.

18. Did the album end well?

It's always hard for modern day albums to keep a quality level all the way through and the first part of the album was stronger overall than the second part.

19. Do you see any way the album could have been improved?

A better production mix could've made the album better.

20. Do you think the album hung together well, ie was a fully cohesive unit, or was it a bit hit-and-miss?

I'd have to say it was a consistent listen throughout and the stylistic changes were blended in so well.

Have to say this is a very modern prog metal album, in that I heard a lot of very modern and contemporary infleunces on the album and the band didn't rely like so many on trying to do a modern day Genesis Peter Gabriel era sound.

8/10