CHEST ROCKWELL VS. THE WORLD

With an obvious base in the indie/alternative sound, the band draws influences from seemingly every genre under the sun and incorporates them into their music; so that you'll get songs starting out as jazz, moving on to ambient themes before turning psychedelic and then dives deeply into the land of metal.

Most of the songs twist and turn from style to style; sometimes with an ebb and flow feel to it, at others times going on a musical exploration trip.

Interesting and intriguing music for anyone with a broad musical taste.

Almost immediately after the release of their 2005 début album, the Chest Rockwell line-up was augmented by the arrival of guitarist/vocalist Seth Wilson. Wilson brought an element of maturity to the band which was largely absent from "Back to square one", this their second album appearing two years later.

The greater sense of ambition contained in this album is evident immediately through the fact that the 8 tracks are linked by a common theme to form a concept album. The variety of track lengths also indicates that where appropriate the band are willing to develop the material to a much greater extent than before.

For my money, the vocals remain the weak point of the performance. They may be adequate for the average indie band, but for a band with clear ambitions to explore a variety of styles and sounds, they are poor to the point of being distracting. Elsewhere though, the instrumental side of the band develops reasonably well, the lead guitar being strong throughout.

One pleasing aspect of the album is the increased use of keyboards to flesh out the overall atmosphere. Had these been used significantly more yet though, many of the songs could have benefited. At times, the music veers towards prog metal territories with fine waves of lead guitar driven on by a pulsating rhythm. Even here though, the vocals are placed far too far up front in the mix, and are frankly inadequate.

Overall, a significant improvement of the band's demo like début. There are plenty of signs here of the potential inherent in Chest Rockwell. Whether that potential lays in prog areas though remains unclear, this is largely an album of indie rock.

As with the first album, it is hard to see why the band has been allocated a neo-prog categorisation on this site; as already said, this is by and large indie focused alternative rock. Admittedly some of the songs now have prog nuances in their structures, but the music here overall would fit better into one of the art rock sub-genres.