STILL THE WATERS

No, that quote from the movie ''Deliverance'' isn't word play on the artist's name. The thing is, I only recently joined ProgArchives so I missed the furore that this release apparently caused, including some nice accusations that you had to be inbred to find anything of worth on the album. I sure don't want to restart a flame war, but from what I can see Still The Waters is over-represented rather than over-rated here on PA. Not the same thing. One area of contention is the subject of Epignosis' vocals, but I've got to say they don't really bother me; I mean, it's not like he growls or anything! The first words I heard when I listened to this album were ''The wisest man ever known lived a long time ago''. Now, that line from A PEARL IN A FIELD isn't quite up there with ''Can you tell me where my country lies'' but it's memorable enough for me to find myself singing it a bunch of the time.

I heard the album as a download so I'm not sure about the intended running order for the songs, but PEARL is the perfect track to open Still The Waters. It starts with two repeated notes that sound like a fanfare, before the drums thunder in like Bonham's ''When The Levee Breaks'' juggernaut. Then that notorious fill appears! Ok, a lot of the drums are a bit of a problem on this album. At times they try to be too busy and don't fill the right spaces, whereas on the title-track they only manage to keep the most basic of beats along with the occasional cymbal crash. Unfortunately the drums take away from the overall vibe in a way that the vocals never do. PEARL ends with a great guitar fade and I would've been as happy as a pig in the proverbial if this solo had been much longer.

Aside from the drums, my other criticism with this album is in relation to the song structures. There's just too much going on at times and the epic NO SHADOW OF TURNING is the main culprit. There are without question some good ideas on this song but overall it seems to lack cohesion. I've been listening solidly for several weeks and I'm still finding it hard to get a handle on it, although I couldn't accuse it of ever being boring. I'm much more comfortable with a song like MOVE. The first half is fairly straightforward with repeated parts and an incredible keyboard motif (that willowy, withering sound pushes the right buttons!). The second part has a definite ''Cinema Show'' feel and some great crunchy guitar licks. Nice. Everything is good on this song and even the drums are tight which helps the song flow nicely.

Epignosis shows good potential here and this is an album that I will happily re-visit; I can think of many albums by established artists that I never want to hear again. I guess that liking this makes me inbred too, but isn't personal taste a great thing? ''Deliverance'' was about a journey into unknown and dangerous waters, the antithesis of a stay in these here waters.

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