THE GARDEN

I happen to stumble upon this CD by pure chance, but I got say I was curious about it when I heard it was on PA. Not too many prog bands come from Australia as far as I know. And Unitopia does have the necessary fine, skillfull musicians needed for such enterprise. And Mark Trueack has a different but very good voice to give them a distinctive sound. The Garden is their second efford, and a daring one, since it´s a double CD with lots of music in it.

The band´s main problem is not their technique or capacity of handling many kinds of music. They surely can do that with their eyes closed. However, The Garden does not have an overall sound that ties together its many stylistic changes and moods. Sometimes the feeling is that you are hearing a compilation of various bands with the same singer. And not everyone works. Which is a pity, since it is clear that those guys are talented. The first songs are very promising: after the short One Day, that serves as an intro, comes the massive 22 minute epic title track. It´s the record´s finest work and even if not really a masterpiece it is however very pleasant and interesting mix of prog rock with some jazz rock/fusion touches.

Angeliqua continues in the same vein, but gets a little boring after a while. From then on the band loses all direction and the rest of the album is like a bunch of tracks thrown together without much criteria. Even the other epic Journeys Friend suffers from the same lack of style, going from prog to jazz to hard rock to metal without much coherence. The short songs are the same hit or miss case, and it becomes more evident with each track you hear on the second disc. The Garden has a very fine production which enhances the bands great skill and competence. But it also reveals that they still have a lot to learn on the songwriting department before tackling again on such bold move as this one.

Conclusion: quite interesting CD from a still promising band, but Unitopia needs to find their own sound, fast. My rating: something between 2,5 to 3 stars.