OPUS ONE

Canadian band Greylevel are something else in the world of progressive music today.

In a time when progressive metal is the all popular style, when big and majestic soundscapes are easily made due to the technology available, Greylevel goes solidly against the norm.

They excel in creating mellow and lush soundscapes, where movement and tempo is slow, where every tone is explored to it's full extent.

The main problem with Greylevel is that the music becomes rather too lush at times though. Even new age veterans like Gandalf and Kitaro have some nerve and tension in their music - or at least some elements that manages to captivate you.

Greylevel are more based in rock than new age, but even so that captivating element seems to be missing from too many parts of these otherwise interesting melodic explorations. Still, it is a promising release, and these guys aren't that far away from making a truly good album here.

This band from western Canada play a spacey, dreamy brand of psychedelic music. The band consists of Derek and Esther Barber (married) and Richard Shukin on lead guitars. I'll get the negatives out of the way first. The male vocals are rather weak but are ok for the most part, although on the first song he is off key at times.The drums aren't real, they're programmed. What I do like about this recording is the fact that the acoustic guitar often leads the way and of course i'm a sucker for lush, spacey soundscapes. The band I thought of the most was PINEAPPLE THIEF although I much prefer the music of that band.

"Sojourn" opens with what sounds like a jet taking off then we get some fabulous acoustic guitar that is intricate and sounds great. Vocals arrive 1 1/2 minutes in,with an electric guitar solo 3 1/2 minutes in. Then it starts to get dreamy. The song ends with spacey keys. "Taken" opens with keys, cymbal sounds and fragile vocals. This is very atmospheric. 3 minutes in it changes with normal vocals, drums and acoustic guitar. It has a spacey ending as well. "Blue Waves" is almost 17 minutes long. It opens with reserved vocals, acoustic guitar and drums. A spacey soundscape follows with piano coming in at 4 minutes. Some good guitar before 7 minutes. We get a beat 13 1/2 minutes in as synths and guitar join in. Female vocals come in for the first time, and piano ends it.

"Your Light" features acoustic guitar and soft vocals. This has a really nice sound and piano follows. "Possessing Nothing" is a good mid-paced tune. Quite spacey after 5 minutes with lots of atmosphere and no real melody. The melody does return 7 minutes in and some raw, electric guitar 10 minutes in. The female vocals make an appearance late as we get a beautiful passage of music. "Rest" seems kind of like new age music, with the spoken words and the soundscape that makes you think this is heaven.

Despite it's faults I think this deserves 3 stars, there is a lot here that I like and if they can improve on a few things I could really get into this band.