W GALERII CZASU

W Galerii Czasu is Polish band Lizard´s debut album. It´s a pretty interesting album if you´ re into melodic yet challenging prog rock. But beware that the lyrics are in Polish and it might not be the most easy language to like on first impression.

The music has some characteristics that makes it original even though you can hear Lizard´s influences more than once. The keyboards are generally melodic and besides the typical chords that accompany the music Andrzej Jancza also uses a really fake piano sound which I really dislike. He is a very cool musician though and adds some jazzy chords here and there which is one of the original things on W Galerii Czasu. That part is something I really like and it reminds me of Allan holdsworth. The guitar plays some solid eclectic notes while the loud bass is also enjoyable. The drums are pretty good too. Damian Bydliñski is a great singer with a touch of Derek Shulmann but his own none the less.

Ka¿dy dzieñ to wiêcej ran w twej g³owie starts the album with it´s almost 10 minute playing time. Lots of different parts in this song. It´s pretty great even though there is a part that is played 4 times instead of 2 like it should have been IMO. It sound amaturish to me. Galeria iluzji continues the album and it might be my favorite here. There are some great guitar riffs here that sound really great. It´s not hard rock but more emotional playing. Autoportret is the next song and it´s the most hard rock like tune here. It´s only a tendency though and it never breaks into full hard rock. Strefa cienia is a very progressive song. Maybe the most challenging song on the album. Ogród przeznaczenia is a semi-ballad with some sombre keyboard notes. W krainie szmaragdowego jaszczura is the ending epic of the album which has a long instrumental intro. The song evolves with vocals later on and it´s one of the best songs on the album. There is even a folky part in W krainie szmaragdowego jaszczura.

The album is very cohesive and stands as a unit despite the eclectic nature of the music.

The musicianship is great on W Galerii Czasu and I´m sure these guys have played in other bands before this one.

The production is both good and bad. I like the sound on the bass, guitar and the vocals while I dislike the sound on the drums and some of the keyboard sounds. The overall impression is OK though nothing special.

I´m really happy I took my time to listen to W Galerii Czasu as it has been a pleasant surprise. I will most definitely be reviewing the rest of their discography too. My overall impression is that W Galerii Czasu is a good album that touches excellent at times and I will reward it 3 big stars with a recommendation. It´s good to see that there are so many quality prog rock bands coming out of Poland.