TRAUMATIZED

Great US one-shot band,playing a mixture of Neo-prog and Sympho-prog bordering Prog- Metal(not that agressive like now - more in early Dream Theater's vein).Such excellent track as "As ye hath Sown" gives the whole impression of the record - it begins with 7/8 pattern,continiues in "The Knife"-vein,has greta ballad-like mid-part and ends up again with groovy 12/8 part.Very emotional singer,good musicians,well played and composed epics ("Relativity" has awesome chorus!) - and a pretty underrated band as a result :-( They're must have been,along with DISCIPLINE,the mostly underrated US New Symphonic band from 90s...Give them some more attention,they do really worth it!!!

3.5 stars. I would describe PUPPET SHOW's sound as being keyboard dominated, with a passionate and emotional singer.

"The King Always Wins" is a very short instrumental consisting of powerful church organ. "Relativity" features swirling keyboards, and also a very GENESIS sounding keyboard melody. I don't think the vocalist could put any more into his singing. "As Ye Hath Sown" consists of a lot of mood shifts, a keyboard solo and mellotron, good song.There is a good guitar solo in "Marathon", and on my favourite "In The Heart Of Man" there are some reserved vocals and mellotron that are blown away at about 4 1/2 minutes by some very animated vocals. "The Ring Of Truth" has more mellotron, along keyboards galore and it gets heavy at times.

This is a solid release and well worth checking out.

This band plays a fully Genesis oriented music (while they were five for most of it). The keyboards sounds are really similar while the vocalist tries to match Gabriel quite often ("Relativity" being an exception probably).

It happens that I like such bands even if in this case it might not be as strong as "The Watch" for instance. But I guess that you have the idea. If you can't tolerate that a band emanates / perpetrates this type of music this album is not for you. If, on the contrary, you fancy once in a while to listen to Genesis related music (or even more than related) I guess that you won't be "traumatized" by this album.

"Marathon" is one of my fave : a bit of "Watcher", some great guitar work and the according Gabriel vocals. Do you like this cocktail ? Needless to say that you will find PLENTY of Banks keyboard style elements in here. But this is the essence of "Puppet Show".

Surprinsingly enough, "In the Heart of man" start as a KC song (for about 2'30"). After this, we'll be reverted to some "Trespass" music (which was also strongly influenced by ITCOTCK). So, globablly, we'll remain in the same family. And it is rather nice. The melody of the chorus is very pleasant, somewhat theatrical (but not too much). The middle part is more "Wind & Wuthering" oriented. Insn't it a wonderful journey ? Another highlight.

The closing number also starts a bit different with some nice Spanish guitar notes, but after this the track will be fully in-line with the classic "Puppet Show" production. Great mellotron and synthesizers, you know like ...But to use again the "Watcher" riffs show some lack in creativity.

Compositions are mostly long ones (from ten to forteen minutes for the majority of them). They might sound irritating here and there ("The Ring of Truth" ) but I would say that this is a good album. Not particularly creative but enough to deserve three stars (in my rating system).

"Traumatized" is the debut full-length studio album by US, California based progressive rock act Puppet Show. The album was originally independently released in 1997 but was picked up for a label release by Kinesis in 1998.

Stylistically this is symphonic progressive rock with neo-progressive leanings. It´s the usual suspects in Genesis and Marillion who are probably the biggest sources of inspiration for Puppet Show and lead vocalist Sean Frazier (although a bit more screaming and strained in his delivery) tries to hit the Peter Gabriel/Fish way of singing. The songs on the 6 track, 55:28 minutes long album are generally pretty long and it´s not songwriting ideas that Puppet Show are lacking. They deliver both complex instrumental parts, atmospheric melancholic parts, and hard rocking parts with omnipresent use of keyboards.

So "Traumatized" is a decent release regarding songwriting and the performances (although I have a problem with the strained delivery of the vocalist), but the sound production seriously drags the album down. This is a homemade lo-fi sounding production job if I ever heard one. It´s not terrible sounding and you can hear all details, but the instruments and the vocals aren´t placed that well in the mix, and the tone of the instruments and the effects on the vocals, just don´t sound that great. As a consequence "Traumatized" ends up sounding rather amaturish, although the material actually features quite a few interesting moments. A 2 - 2.5 (45%) rating is warranted.

PUPPET SHOW are a relatively new US band coming from San Jose,California with a sound deep rooted in the classic progressive rock of the 70's.They were formed in 1997 and almost immediately released their debut ''Traumatized'',being a discovery of Kinesis Label.

PUPPET SHOW won't ever win a prize for their originality,but their music is very well-crafted and performed,leading to a result which can be a fave of all vintage-prog fans.The compositions are mainly long with a variety of old analig keyboard sounds like the mighty mellotron (echoes of GENESIS,while blended with delicate acoustic guitars),the Hammond organ (slight E.L.P. influences),the moog synthesizer and the church organ.Especially fans of GENESIS will find a lot of sounds to remind them something.Despite being definitely keyboard-centered,in ''Traumatized'' you will also find plenty of soaring guitars and inspired solos in the vein of STEVE HACKETT or even STEVE ROTHERY to complete a nice soundscape of this work...and last but not least the band features a strong vocalist under the presence of Sean Frazier and his intense/dramatic vocals.''Traumatized'' ends up being a very strong release and a pleasant listening for all progressice rock fans of the old years.Recommended!