FAREWELL

All Marek Arnold's projects (at least the three I heard) share the same wild eclecticism, combining heavy theatrical rock with soul, funk, fusion and many other styles. Of these, Toxic Smile has the reputation of being the rockiest, hence the prog metal label (although his other bands have death metal elements in them that this one doesn't). No female soul-styled backing vocals, but it still follows the same eclectic formula. And honestly, though I haven't heard the earliest efforts, styles of Toxic Smile and the Seven Steps to the Green Door seem to be converging more and more with time. This is one has a single 42-minute song - a true song, and not just a medley-type of composition. Despite the attention to vocals usually given by the Arnold musical family and the fine vocalist here as well, there are surprisingly few vocal lines, with most of the album being a kind of a plodding symphonic rock-slash-hard rock jam, with different stylistic interludes. The thing I like is that its not too dense a production, crunchy, but not overlayered, with often just the basic instrumentation playing. As with most 40-minute prog opuses, it has a tendency to unnecessarily drag out the ending, but otherwise a surprisingly coherent work.