THE DARK THIRD

After numerous EPs and the gaining of a fanbase, The Dark Third was released to the public in July of 2006 to positive reviews and positive support from the progressive community. When word spread around that Pure Reason Revolution were the newest sensation in the progressive music scene, I decided to make a blind purchase and so I picked up this album. While I don't think it is all that bad, I'm having trouble trying to find what exactly is progressive about this group, and what exactly they want to be. And if that weren't enough, this album does horridly boring at points, making songs feel like they take eons to finish (especially the longer songs on the album).

I'm not going to really go into detail about each track on the album, but rather describe what I get out of the album after listening to it. Sure, the vocals are lush and have a crisp/over produced edge to them that make them catchy and melodic, but I find them to get rather tedious at points (for example, the song Bright Ambassadors of Morning has them repeating that phrase ad-nauseum for nearly 10 minutes). Another positive quality is the production and the sound of the album itself. It's well balanced, meaning that every instrument gets an equal opportunity in the spotlight, but that doesn't mean it makes engaging music.

Some of the songs are pretty good, Apprentice for the Universe, for example, has some catchy melodies and the playing (for one of the few times on the album) actually engages me and keeps me on the edge of my seat. A few other bits and pieces on the album also invoke this feeling in me, but for the most part, I'm left pretty cold by this debut.

In conclusion, if you like your music on the indie side with doses of progressive rock here and there, Pure Reason Revolution might be what you're looking for. For me, though, I'm left more bored by this album than anything else. This group has a long future in the music business, so I'll hope that they improve on the faults of this album and hopefully their sophomore album won't be a slump. But for now, we're left with numerous EPs and The Dark Third, the latter of which isn't entirely bad, but there certainly is a lot of room for improvement.

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