ENTROPY

Led by singer/keyboardist Glenn Alexander, UK progsters Magrathea were formed in 1993 as a five-piece group with Neil Gordon on keys, Gary Gordon on bass, Gary Macdonald on drums and Grant Mallison on guitars.By the new millenium Neil Gordon and Mallison got out of the picture with Jason Smith taking over the guitars and Alexander being also responsible for the keyboard work.This line-up recorded ''Underclouds'', the band's debut, issued in 2001 as ''Entropy'' with the same tracklist but also alternate version of certain tracks.

This first release finds Magrathea delivering a rather raw, unrefined but still attractive sound, evoking the heavier Neo/Symphonic prog bands like TSUNAMI, MENTAUR and early GALAHAD or PALLAS.With Alexander performing in a quite dramatic vocal style and offering a keyboard work full of surprises, the album gets some of its inspiration also from Classic Prog bands such as YES and GENESIS, wrapped in an atmospheric mix of different and sometimes dark-styled soundscapes with symphonic keyboards, heavy-sounding guitars and a fair amount of breaks.Powerful and dynamic grooves give their place to keyboard-based symphonic passages and some nice dramatic vocal performances are followed by delicate instrumental parts with flashy synths and complex ideas.There is also an obscure metal mood dominating the album, which however does not sound metal at all, mainly because of the frenetic groovy parts and the combination of heavy guitars and nervous synths.But the overall style is closer to Neo/Symponic Prog with good orchestrations and interesting themes popping up here and there.Only flaws: The distorted vocal parts and a few uninteresting parts of groovy but forgettable Heavy Rock.

Of great interest for both fans of Neo Prog and Symphonic Rock, though even the metalheads will find plenty to like in ''Entropy''.Recommended.