INK

This album was a real surprise when I heard it. Powerful, technical and melodic, I think that this band is, no doubt, the future of Spanish progressive metal. The only problems are the mixing/mastering (good but not great) and the duration (even when I like long albums and I like how this one is built, I have no time to listen to the whole thing at one time and this upsets me!) But, in every way, it's a surprisingly mature album for 18-19 years old boys. Worth listening, I bought the physical edition and it's also very cool. I think that this band is gonna nail it over the years and this albums will be remembered as good it was.

Ink is a lengthy double CD with over two hours of music, a colossal work full of progressive melodies leaning towards metal that characterises the sound of this disciplined and efficient group. The album, which has undergone almost two years of hard work, is divided into two parts: Book of Equinox and Book of Solstice. This debut is the ambitious project of a group that searches for a consolidation of progressive forms, with energetic tunes that are wisely structured. The music that is included in this dense and powerful album contains a wide array of diverse styles that contrast with the rock/metal base of the band, though even so work really well together and enriches its own sound with styles such as jazz, techno, electronic, reggae or even 'opera-esque' in the form of numerous voices that represent characters in the stories of various songs.

This new rookie album from Pervy Perkins entitled "Ink" is quite the tour de force. An amazing first effort. The bio says Ink was two years in the making and it shows. The sheer amount of sounds, instruments, vocals, and genre styles is very cool. Sometimes a two disc set gets old and repetitive, not on Ink! Always something new around the corner. The production is solid, very clear. The guys know how to play. All instruments shine. The vocals are mostly good. There are a couple of rough spots but I am very impressed with their delivery in English. There is a wonderful guest female vocalist, not listed on PA. This eclectic work of art is highly recommended. Can't wait to see how they top this on their next effort. 4.5 really!

Ink is a phenomenal debut album, specially considering this is such a young band. The sound of Pervy Perkin is a direct heritage of the bands that inspired them to be musicians, so that's what you're gonna find, basically. But in this two hours plus monster there's an interesting mixture of modern currents, such as Dream Theater, Pain of Salvation, Opeth or Porcupine Tree, with the more classical and refined sound of Pink Floyd, Rush, Yes or Camel.

Ink is a journey through all this influences, but it doesn't sound disjointed or forced. Surprisingly, the "Pervy Perkin factor" makes the whole thing glue perfectly. So you can be listening to a mellow section driven by acoustic guitars only to be drowned in a crescendo with reveries of Metallica's Ride the Lightning, and then jump into an Opeth-like riff that will break in a reggae mood to end up in a pompous chorus filled with choirs and orchestrations. But hey, the next song will be an electronic piece, so brace yourselves!

Pervy Perkin has achieved what seemed impossible attending to the lenght of the album: you never lose interest while listening to it, you always want to know what comes next... and probably you'll always be surprised. Ink is a playful album, it reminds me of the first time I listened to Haken: there's joy in this songs, they're filled with an intangible energy. The multiple voices and choirs resemble to the ones seen in Transatlantic, althought they lack production overall; the instrumental work is superb, though. If you are a keyboardist, you're gonna love this album.

If I had to choose just three tracks from the album to introduce anyone into the fantastic world of Pervy Perkin, I'd say: Of Echoes and Reflections, Memories of the Water and S!urm. Ink is, in my opinion, one of the best prog albums of 2014 so far, so you will not be disappointed anyway!

Wonderful album, more than two hours of stunning music that have passed as if they were a few minutes. A concept album divided by two parts: BOOK OF EQUINOX and BOOK OF SOLSTICE. You can download it for free on Bandcamp. Lyrics: http://pervyperkin.wordpress.com/ink_lyrics/

BOOK OF EQUINOX has major variety as much as heavy parts and mellow parts, going from opera to electronic parts, a little fandango, jazz, piano jazz, folk music, Egyptian music and even a part that sounds like carnival music followed by a pleasant reggae, after that, a ''wild music'' that makes you feel like in a jungle near a native tribe or something... Ending the book with the longest song of the album called ''Morphosis'' the typical prog metal/rock music with a lot of variety vocals and instrumental, remembering a mix between DT, Transatlantic and Steven Wilson.

BOOK OF SOLSTICE gets a little colder and colorless but still has variety with unusual rhythms and electronic parts that makes it more obscure. The song called ''Shades under a City Lamppost'' is one of my favorites, an atmospherical/ambient music that begins dark and growing some colors with the time, but sad colors, remembering me of Wintersun (TIME I), ending with a beautiful sad piano introducing the next song; a beautiful keyboard work and melodies that makes the moon cry, growing with the songs, stars become brighter. S!urm is more colored than other songs of the book with a nice rapmetal part. T.I.M.E. (Part 3: The Sign on the Wall) is my favorite song of the entire album, it begins with the sound of rain and a man writing a letter following a beautiful mellow song with acoustic guitar, after this is pure magic, closing with golden key ''Epilogue'' is a magical winter's majesty that gets stronger in your heart, pure beauty.

Sounds like a mix of jazzy parts and electronic music and a little opera (if can I say that), with some strong melodies and pure technical weight of prog metal. The vocals should be better equalized and the music has some mixing errors. It's like Porcupine Tree in its Space Rock times had found Opeth, Transatlantic and something more. It begins amazing and ends amazing, a perfect debut album! Hope they keep doing the awesome job. It was a surprise. (4.51 stars)

I feel very happy when I surf the internet looking for some new exciting unknown bands, and I find records like this. Oh my god. Powerful, epic and anthemic, Pervy Perkin's Ink is a masterpiece, and it should be regarded as that. From the very moment i found this band, i had the feeling that they were going to offer me something very special. And I wasn't wrong.

I must admit that I've been listening recently to some great double albums, so at first I was somehow excited to listen to some more (maybe) great prog tunes in this new record. And it blew my mind, as no record had done in quite a while. And it's the band's debut album!

The albums begins with Opening Credits, telling that you're about to begin a real musical adventure. And then Of Echoes and Reflections arrives with its epicness and powerful chorus. Brilliant.

At that moment, I thought "Wow! I hope this album keeps on surprising me!" And it did. One by one, each song has something unique that will make you either smile, say "wow", headbang, or any other emotion from a wide range, but never a bad one. Not even a Meh. This record is just fantastic, and although it's a really long one, it never gets boring or dull. Energy, melancholy, anger, joy... many different moments are gathered in it.

However, I recommend to play it in two separate listenings, or more, the first time you listen to it. I think that is better in order to taste all the details with a fresh mind. Trust me, it's worth it, because there are a lot of great things in here, not only in the long, epic tunes, but also even in the short instrumentals.

In conclusion, a must-listen to every prog fan, it's wonderful how this young band has made such a brilliant work of art. It's very special, and I hope they make more overwhelming music like this in the future. From now on, I'm a die-hard fan!

How can I describe my feelings after listening three times to this monumental 2 hours of music by this band coming from nowhere and playing progressive metal that shows influences of Dream Theater in many places, but also Opeth, Enrico Morricone , Deep Purple, Therion in specific passages, because the band let his music take many twists, turnarounds and styles that include a spice of Jazz, Reggae, symphonic with opera voices, soundtrack music and techno with ambient sounds. There are plenty of voices nuances with male and female vocals; sometimes it's not very enjoyable for the ears, but that is expected in the metal genre. But what is the most impressive instrumental performance as the musicianship goes, is the work of the guitars, which goes from gentle acoustic and classical sound to heavier tones that are sometimes very original. The songs structures brings many rhythms changes, stop and go that make it's impossible to predict in what style the song will go. Sometimes, I had the impression that I was listening to many bands with this 2 hours of music, because the songs have different atmosphere and not only many twists in the same song, like the two epics of 20 minutes. If the guitars are dominant here, there are some nice keyboards breaks that could have been more exploited here, and in a couple of very inspirational passages I would have prefer to see the band stretch it out a bit longer. Like I said earlier, the vocals are diverse, from clean to death with a bit of narration, but not too present to let some long instrumental breaks shine throughout the CD. The diversity of the style of progressive metal and the diversity of atmosphere we have here makes these 2 hours of music enjoyable from start to finish. From the aggression of the metal, through the retro sound of the classical rock to the modern and ambient sounds, the listener goes to a long journey full of surprises along the way. This is the best free digital release you can find...

It's not often that I come across an album of this length and can listen to it all the way through without getting bored. This is one of the very few that stay interesting and fascinating from beginning to end for a duration of 2 hours and almost 18 minutes.

I suppose it's not often that you come across an album of this length, period.

This makes it all the more surprising then that there are no excessive lengths here at all, in which you might wish that they'd finish one section and go onto the next. It just doesn't happen. It's almost as if this band has got an almost supernatural ability to tell when something might possibly get slightly tedious and move on before this can occur. In fact, this is possibly the only album I know that manages to avoid this trap completely.

These guys certainly have a distinctive metal style and manage to produce an incredible amount of variations in themes and arrangements without sounding as if they've strayed away from what makes their sound their own. This doesn't apply just to the individual tracks, but also to the sections within these tracks. The variety is incredible, and it fits simply everywhere.

A while back we had a period of time in which the band Haken was apparently the bee's knees. Now, I can't say I ever agreed to this opinion because I actually find them quite dull, especially after reading the rave reviews, which you can find on this site. I feel that Pervy Perkin (cripes, what a terrible name!) actually fulfills all the hype that I expected to hear from those reviews I read about Haken.

This is a debut album we have here. I'm not usually into expressing such a drastic opinion and I hope I'm not coming across as exaggerating (my alcohol intake at this point in time is zero), but I find this to be among my personal top three debut albums ever, and that's going back a few decades.

But as always, there is one slight fly in the ointment (isn't there always!), and that's the vocals. Well, perhaps not the vocals themselves, it's hard to tell, but something sounds off in places, and sometimes distinctly. It's almost as if the recording of the music was done at the highest professional level, while the vocals were recorded somewhere else by a producer who possibly lacked experience? Sometimes they just lack body and strength and seem buried too far in the mix and sometimes the harmonies just don't quite gel.

But this is hardly relevant, bringing my overall rating down from an unquestionable 5 stars down to perhaps 4.7 or 4.8. As if it mattered! These guys are great!

In the beginnings of prog everybody tried to outdo each other. Then, a backlash set in. Now, it's renaissance of excess. A debut album already a conceptual double disk affair loaded with epics. Don't be fooled by the opening songs into thinking this is some sort of Dreamtheater/Rhapsody hybrid - pompous cinematic metal - with less professional vocals. It'll get progressively weirder. Yes, the basic sound is prog metal, but also thrown in are psychedelia, classic hard rock, folk, sweet female vocals, western (!), death metal, neo-prog, impressive instrumental workouts, techno, reggae, circus music, kitsch gangster Tarantino send-up and even punk and rap! Songs are very unpredictable. What I like about a crop of younger bands now is that they don't hide their love of classic rock behind layers of metal (like Dreamtheater). If they want to pay homage to the classics, they do it directly. Gotta be the most eclectic stuff I've heard in a while. But what works in a smaller format, can be rather messy in 20-minute epics. Songwriting-wise, they are step behind such like-minded eclecticists like Haken. For all my love of eclectic metal, if I give them five stars, it'll probably encourage them to write a four disk set next time including the sound of the vocalist flossing. Just kidding. A fun ride, and quite impressive in places, too.

In my opinion these album and group are overrated.

If this would have been the first technical prog metal album...ok a good album. But....there have been before masterpieces of this kind of prog metal... We can remember Dream Theater in ...degrees of...or Symphony X,or Zero Hour.,Andromeda,Pagans Mind...much better achievements.

The instrumental parts good but nothing original here. The vocals and the sound recording very bad.

When i listen to this album I feel I am listening to a kind of demo...

I think these guys can do better ....please another singer and improve the sound recording.

For me very disappointing.

May be I can be evaluated as exaggerated...but ...the less points in the rating ...1

"Ah, the shotgun approach!" [i pictured Jeff Goldblum saying those words for some reason.]

Bands take many approaches to constructing and building albums. Some can be equated to being laser focused, like a sniper dropping a target at 600 yards out. They are solid with their concept, experience, skills, engineering and business marketing. Other bands are inexperienced, fumblingly firing a shotgun out of fear, hoping something from the spread will hit it's target enough to disable them. Unfortunately, Pervy Perkins is one of those examples. PP is a young band, with lofty ambitions of song complexity and album duration.

But, mostly album duration.

PP has many good listening moments with elaborate sonic textures and music tones. I liked the Opening credits and the intro to Morphosis. There are moments of pizazz. Equally, however, Ink also has many bad listening moments. They have many bland, filler moments that go nowhere and are left unexplored. They have many form changes within their songs, and many styles they wish to tackle with mediocre results. Let's play jazz here. Can we even play jazz? No, but we can fake it (listen to Peanut Butterfly, 2 1/2 min. in) ...And that's a big problem for the avid listening musician. PP is all over the board with forced song form changes, simply for the sake of satisfying their musical ADHD. For every positive listening moment, there's something that takes you out of the experience a few seconds later. If this style of prog -- hyper-prog -- is your cup of tea, then you will enjoy the efforts of this band, sure, but this reviewer highly encourages you to listen to last years mysterious breakout band, Fright Pig. Their album, Out Of The Barnyard is what PP sound like and should aspire to become. Fright Pig has all the song form ADHD, but the record is extremely well crafted, showcasing only the strongest points of individual members. Out Of The Barnyard is more compact at 45 min. and contains well crafted ideas, no filler. The genres attempted throughout are handled with ease and experience, as Fright Pig's musicianship is outstanding (words whispered on the net -- a bunch of Berkelee students. Shhhhh! you didn't hear that from me).

Even before this album was recorded, the band should have sought out an experienced producer, one who would have helped exorcise many of the freshman ideas and mixing pitfalls from this album. A more succinct and condensed approach would have resulted in a better body of work allowing for parts and ideas to be brought fully to fruition. More experience in song crafting would encourage working out stronger vocal passages and lyrical phrases?

And that reminds me...

Vocals. [sigh] Ok, the lyrics are embarrassingly sub par, even more then Arjen's latest release -- which this reviewer thought a new low had been set. But, Arjen's vocalists were recorded exceptionally well and I could clearly understand the singers in the Ayreon project (enough to drive home the fact it was a mind-numbingly tepid concept. The music and arrangements were extraordinary, however). On Ink there simply are no strong vocal melody lines that stick with you and the recorded clarity of the vocals leave much to be desired. In scarce places, it seems there was an attempt at fashioning some type of solo vocal harmony exercise, but nothing anywhere close to what we can expect on, say, a current Moon Safari, A.C.T or Spock's Beard release. There's little in the lyrics that define a clear idea of what any given song is even about. PP approaches words as trite afterthought, investing the majority of their song crafting skills into needless compositional complexity. Oh, and lest I forget: the cringe-worthy high notes! At 5:15 of the song New Dawn this reviewer became sterile. No joke. The "little swimmer" count went to zero. While admirable as a new medical breakthrough, high notes as sonic birth control should come with a warning label. As much as I hoped never to hear that attempt at a high note again, there are countless more throughout the recording. I found myself saying "no, don't do that" aloud, shaking my head in disbelief numerous times. This begs the question: "did the band show the final pass of this recording to only their parents for criticism?" There are countless inaudible phrases being sung, eye-watering high notes, laughable vocal scoops, etc. (visit 14:50 min into Morphosis. And may whatever deity you worship protect you).

Aside from the vocal work the drum parts could also have been synched and quantized to the music little more thoroughly in parts. And, simply, just plain recorded and mixed better. Just comparing the sound of the drums to what Gavin Harrison does on Porcupine Tree shows the stark contrast between a 5-star band's quality audio engineering vs. the multitude of startups in the basement. Seriously, switch back and forth between the two. The drums and overall sound production on Ink is thinner, weightless and more brittle by comparison.

Which leads us to: Length.

No need to harp on this, but geezus, this is one unnecessarily long, jimmy-leg of a recording. Why not just make two albums, increase potential product sales, and release them in different quarters of the year, keeping your name and brand identity in circulation longer? That would have been a far better band business marketing strategy.

This is a harsh critique, and it's unfortunate that Pervy is taking a beating here as the musicians (sans vocals) are somewhat competent on their instruments, but by no means are they the next generation of endorsed corporate influencers -- yet. Distill it down to the core: as a whole, they're ambitious budding song writers who are decent musicians with a multitude of ideas being thrown out for vanity sake. A wanton lust to be the next multi-genred prog metal band. There's promise, though. Future recordings (in the right hands of an experienced song writer) would produce better results. Aside from the negatives (which are tangible barriers that can be easily overcome) this reviewer, however harsh now, believes there is a future rife with potential for this band. Hopefully this also encourages the mass listening audience to take the time, sit, and properly evaluate a little more critically, too. The spotify generation seems unable to make it through more than 30 seconds of a song, before forwarding to the next song. In this day and age where every musician with ProTools LE is sitting at home splicing together regurgitated guitar riffs, half-assured vocal melodies and pseudo-songs, we the avid listeners, need to go over it with a fine tooth comb to find out where that gold standard for music once was. There's far too much mediocrity being praised as the next coming of christ. We should hold our 5-star bands to lofty standards for consideration: song composition, the musician's listening and arranging abilities, professional vocals, quality lyrics and album production. PP fell a little short in many of the categories, but again, they're still a relatively new, growing and maturing band. They have the requisite skills to attain something more. A solid producer, in a quality recording facility, and an exceptionally strong singer would serve them well and could take them to the professional, 5-star level we all know they aspire to attain.

As a frequent listener of this kind of new progressive stuff , and the wave of many bands coming out, I only have to say that this band and INK has blew my mind.

In first place the album grows with every listen and makes you understand it as a whole, it feels very natural despite of the length (if you have no time to listen to it all at once does not matter). The contrast of styles, the melodies and the structures of the songs for such a young band, makes me feel confident to say that this will be something serious...maybe in the next album with a better production, we will see, I do not know what will be the next step in this guys cause this album just covers a lot and when I say a lot I say a lot of musical grounds! The simple reason is that they state such a wide range of intentions, different vibes, in such different point of views of the music that simply amazes me.

Epic songs, electronic songs, some psychedelia, multiple voices that make songs more theatrical.

I personally can see a bunch of guys that has united to make whatever they want with a base of rock/metal and progressive music, but taking to a whole new level of experimentation. I'm quite hooked with this piece. The only cont that I can perceive is in terms of production, they can make it sound better but it is understandable cause it is their debut, and they are quite young...just waiting for the next!

Two years in the making, 'Ink' is a dream come true for Pervy Perkin, a 6-piece band hailing from Murcia in Spain. In fact, their goal was to bring the various musical genres they listen to into one unique musical project, and they quite succeeded in this endeavour as their album defies any genre.

If one wanted to label the music of our young spanish musicians, progressive hard-rock would be the best label, the main features being swirling keyboards, raging guitars and drums crackling with energy. This is true when you listen to the first CD of their ambitious project. But then you listen to the second CD, and you soon realize that some tracks are definitely in a completely different mood. "Shades Under a City Lamppost" is electronic music (ambient through the slow notes and bombastic with the more flashy bridge). "Memories of the Water" and "S!urm" are alternative rock (the former with typical vibrating guitars and undecided drums of this style, yet with a short hardcore passage, the latter including zappaesques, hard-rock and hip-hop touches). "Asleep in a Wormhole" is psychedelic pop in a circus arena. "3.11 A.M. (The Crystal Clock)" and "Epilogue" are sunny pop songs. On the first CD, even if this hotchpotch of styles is less obvious, the band already warns us about many possible digressions from a traditional progressive rock line. In fact, the opener is nothing more than the soundtrack to an unexisting movie, with the tearful trumpet, the pleading choir and galloping strings bringing back to memory the scores of Ennio Morricone for western movies. While "The Tree in the Sky" is mostly brazilian music with flute evoking wild forrest, classical guitar and hypnotic drums. In the same spirit of overture to other musical styles, "Falling from Earth" is a sad lullaby where the mournful voice is accompanied only by a melancholic guitar.

Even in their progressive rock tracks, the band feels the need to throw in here and there elements of other musical horizons. The classical music elements abound indeed (canon vocals in "Of Echoes and Reflections", strings in the same song, Renaissance music with the classical guitar of "The Tree in the Sky", music of the Middle Ages with the melody line of "Far Away Crusade Defending the Colonies of Satellite A.T.L.A.S"). Elements of popular musical styles are present as well (funk, reggae, circus music, latin music, ragtime, rock'n'roll, punk, hip-hop, trip-hop). Traditional elements are not forgotten (sea shanties, an accordion, an arabian motif).

We see that our promising band considers two definitions of progressive rock: a music with rhythm changes and abundance of solos on one hand, a music that blends many different styles on another hand. Besides, the progressive side of their music can be further witnessed in the vocals. Those can be indeed mournful or more cheerful, involving both male and female vocalists. Another sign of their open-mindedness is the (very spare) addition of death metal growls. Humour is also invited as circus music and zappaesques are included in their musical world. Progressive music, as envisioned by Perky Pervin, is not only about rehashing the recipe of the retro-prog rock acts where long guitar and keyboard solos support changing rhythms. It is also in creating surprise by bringing together many various musical styles, and by creating contrasts in vocals.

Pervy Perkin, just as their compatriots of Cheeto's Magazine, are a breath of fresh air and a wealth of originality in the somewhat breathless world of progressive rock. For some listeners, their music might sound lacking consistency as the unexpected elements come all of sudden. Besides, some people might have the impression that the band is still looking for an identity, as taken as a whole, the album might sound as a sampler with many different bands. In my opinion, that is no issue, as their goal is clearly to belong to the most adventurous group of progressive rock acts, along with bands like Dixie Dregs, Mr. Bungle, Praxis or Modest Midget. Given their young age (20 y.o. at the time of the album's release), we are really surprised by the quality of the compositions and their good use of elements of their various influences. Let's hope that they will continue on the path of eclecticism, with, next time, why not some country music and indus-metal ?

Pervy Perkin is a progressive rock/metal band from Murcia, Spain. Their first album entitled Ink was released earlier in 2014. The album itself serves as a long passage between different music styles, but still it remains centered around the progressive rock music.

My first impression about "Ink" was that the Spaniards made a recording after their ears were exposed to many different artists and genres. The experiment called Ink, which is released as a double album comprised of "Book of Equinox" (CD1) and "Book of Solstice" (CD2), was then completed by crossing over the contrasted music elements coming from classical music to progressive metal. The result is a recording that screams eclecticism in every minute of its playtime.

The cinematic character of "Ink" is something that strikes you right after you press the play button - the intro "Opening Credits" announce the beginning of something epic. Song after song, Ink reaches absolute highs and downs, it gets on speed but also knows how to slow down.

"Of Echoes and Reflections," which kicks off with the sound of seagulls, is a combination of classical and metal elements. Factor of the continuity between the pieces is masterfully crafted, that all of the different musical tangents flock into the same bed. The album is on the progressive rock streak accompanied with quirky arrangements and plethora of rhythmic changes.

"The End of the Beginning" is a piece on its own, coming wrapped up with theatrical vocal performance and keyboard interjections. "Morphosis" comes forward as a song that represents a much needed change in the album's flow. A lot of that change is assigned to female vocals and, for a change, growls. That certainly contributes to the album's dynamic.

Second CD, "Book of Solstice," starts with "Memories of the Water" which goes all the way from ambient soundscapes towards the melodic side of death metal. "Shades Under a City Lamppost" is an instrumental with touches of electronic, what makes "Ink" definitely a hodge podge.

With its 2 hours and 15 minutes in length, "Ink" does come a little bit unfocused. However, leaving the time factor aside, there is plenty of interesting and good music here. Having released this album as it is, Pervy Perkin have definitely earned a good experience for what comes next. And that "next" may bring something extraordinary. Wait and see.

Spanish band PERVY PERKIN was formed in 2011, and consist of five fairly young musicians operating out of Spanish capitol Madrid. They are a self-described progressive rock/metal band, and self-released their debut album "Ink" in 2014.

I'll have to admit that I am charmed by the ambition of this band. It's not all that often that a new, young band makes their first foray into the world of recording artists with a double CD, and perhaps even more uncommon that said double feature is a theme album. It demands a lot by a young band to create such a production, and I'm pretty sure that a lot of emotion as well as time have been invested on this album.

They do have a lot going for them as well. They mention a stack of fairly different artists as sources of inspiration, and this is indeed one of the few cases where a band's cited influences, as varied as in this case, can be found also in their music. Most of the compositions does feature sequences that belongs rather safely inside a progressive metal context, so presumably most people will place them inside such a general context, and they do know their way around both classic guitar riff and keyboard arrangements as well as in more vibrant and energetic guitar driven ones. They are just as compelling when exploring passages of a gentler kind however, with wandering plucked and at times acoustic guitars accompanied by careful keyboards or piano and dampened rhythm details. One of the highlights of this production for me is a piece revolving around such features, the just over 11 minutes long Memories of the Water. They also master more atmospheric laden and electronic dominated creations extremely well it should be said, as exemplified brilliantly on Shades under a City Lamppost. Atmospheric laden progressive rock closer to the likes of Pink Floyd is more of a recurring feature however, as well as some vintage Deep Purple tinged moments, and we're also treated to select occurrences of reggae and funk-tinged rock Red Hot Chili Pepper's style along the way.

For me this album plays out a bit more like a move than a concept album however, in that we're moved from one location to the next, and in the album as a whole as well as in the individual compositions there's a tendency to go steadily onward. Some of the more memorable tracks does use recurring themes and motifs to good effect, but other appears intent on just moving on, and with multiple alterations in pace, style and intensity some of the compositions becomes a bit aimless for me and how I listen to music. I found this subtle details to be most profound early on, and as this album unfolds my perception is that this tendency decreases somewhat. I also get a feeling that the band have purposefully focused on not creating such an experience on the massive, sprawling epic Morphosis, a behemoth of a song that clocks in at 26 minutes and a bit.

A detail of more concern for me here are the main lead vocals however, which I generally found to be detrimental to the total experience. To weak in the gentlest passages, at times with for me odd choices in pitch, tone and intonation, and otherwise too thin and nasal - especially in the passages demanding a more powerful vocal delivery. There's a will and emotion present that will satisfy many listeners, as there are many that hone in on that aspect of the lead vocals, but for someone like me, who listen to the vocals as an instrument in it's own right, the end result may well be that it is detrimental to the end user experience.

I should perhaps also add that some of the theatrical sequences where spoken words are used to give life to the storyline aren't all that well written nor executed as I experience them: It takes skill both to be a playwright and an actor, and that skill set isn't automatically compatible with being a lyricist, composer or musician in a band.

While my personal opinion of this album is that it is somewhat flawed, a production with some specific shortcomings, how enjoyable or not this production is, that is a matter where opinions will differ, much depending on what kind of listener you are. Those not all that particular about vocals, and who find compositions with multiple alterations and changes in style, pace and intensity to generally be a good thing will get a lot of enjoyment from this production. Literally speaking as well, as this one does clock in at around 140 minutes playtime. Those with more sensitive tastes on the details described above should probably approach this one with a bit of caution.

Sometimes a ridiculously bad band name prevents me from exploring a said band's music and such is the case of the ghastly denominated PERVY PERKIN. I couldn't think of a worse name for a progressive metal band if i tried, however once i finally explored this band that emerged from Murcia, Spain and currently resides in Madrid, i have to admit that despite the hideous moniker and rather uninspiring album cover art for its three full-length releases that i was completely enthralled by the band's debut album INK which hit the world in 2014. This group of perves was formed in 2010 by Carly Pajar'n (drums, percussion, vocals), 'lvaro Luis (guitar, bass), Dante (guitar, bass, vocals) and Ugo Fellone (keyboards, acoustic guitar) but was soon joined by lead vocalist Alejandro Macho. Soon thereafter Fellone left the band and was replaced by bassist Pablo Aks.

About the ridiculous name. In an interview with Prog-Sphere.com, guitarist Dante explained that the name was derived from an interest in astronomy and as it turns out 2483 PERKIN came up as a name for a celestial body from the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, which according to some is the exploded remains of the long lost planet Tiamat. The PERVY part of the equation was added to personify this asteroid who had a hatred and jealousy for the Earth so great that it designed a plan to lock its orbit into a trajectory that would ultimate crash into the planet and extinguish all life much like the theoretical asteroid that was the demise of the entire existence of dinosaurs some 65 million years in the past. While it is helpful to understand how this name came to be, admittedly it doesn't make me like in the least bit but despite the silly name, this band of young musicians is quite the talented bunch!

While the album's title INK has a mere three letters, the debut album boldly encompasses a whopping 137 minutes of listening experience which immediately pegged the band by many as being overly pompous, overweening, overbloated and much too adventurous for its own good. Those are the kinds of comments that generate my interest but to invest over two hours in a newer band that i have never heard? Well, sometimes you just have to let a few tracks flow and either you love it or leave it. Luckily for PERVY PERKIN i stuck around and despite the album's admittedly excessive use of listening time, this band has the knack to keep the active and adventurous listener intrigued as one melodic development cedes into the next all the while a callithump of musical genres perform tricks like circus animals performing on cue.

PERVY PERKIN can be thought of as one of those multi-genre juggling acts that has taken the disparate sounds of classic and modern progressive rock and mixed it all together with the more modern Dream Theater strain of progressive metal. Perhaps most closely related to bands like Haken, PERVY PERKIN tackles the seemingly impossible task of mixing and melding influences such as Dream Theater, Ayreon, Pain of Salvation, Opeth and Symphony X on the prog metal side of the equation along with a multitude of prog rock references such as Pink Floyd, Camel, Kansas, Rush and the Neil Morse projects such as Spock's Beard and Transatlantic amongst others. Add to that additional references to soundtrack music such as Ennio Morricone, Muse, Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Frank Zappa and more and you can only imagine how much went into the making of this sprawling prog rock / metal album of epic proportion. Add even more touches of jazz, electronica, folk and more and you get the drift.

There is literally too much happening on INK to adequately convey the creativity displayed on it in mere the mere writing of a review. This is a type of band that must be experienced but it does require the proper investment of time and effort to connect with it. This is hardly an album for those who take the fly by night approach of simply sampling. While the accusations of a lengthy rambling album with no cohesive design may be true in small part due to the fact that the tracks are independently designed and exist within their own continuum of things, well'. so what. Many albums are a collection of disparate tracks and there have been no claims that this is a concept album of any sort. What it does convey is how talented this collection of Spanish musicians has become in their relentless pursuit to leave no prog rocks unturned. Admittedly an idea that has been done before and nothing new but PERVY PERKIN channel all of the technical wizardry into a strong emotional connection which is what keeps the album listenable for its duration.

While it's true there are some moments of 'down time' where an idea lingers too long or the vocal performances aren't up to the standards that the music demands, the album is for the most part an instrumental exploration and reinterpretation of all the aforementioned influences along with ample heaps of creative input. While the tag metal often accompanies the works of PERVY PERKIN, the heavier parts are not as common as the more middle of the road prog rock ones. In the end, this is not a magnum opus by any means. This is the work of a young band with a fertile creative drive that at times borders on a naive charm but always executed in a satisfying manner. While it may have been wiser to release the material as two albums or even edit out some of the more meandering parts, the truth is that i don't find any material on here to be unlistenable. In fact most of it is rather refreshing and interestingly performed. With two tracks over 20 minutes and 2 hours worth of listening material, this is truly one for the prog- o-holics out there but PERVY PERKIN delivered an exciting overdose of everything prog on its debut INK.