TRIANGULATE

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I gotta say, I'm not really a fan of this band or album. I love neo-prog, but I don't think this band really falls into that sub-genre. There are moments on this album that sound exactly like moments on Porcupine Tree's "In Absentia" and also "Deadwing". That should give you an idea of what sound this band uses.

There was a band a few years back named Abigail's Ghost that pulled a similar stunt. They were basically a mix of Porcupine Tree and Genesis, but at least they had some original ideas and blew my mind with some of the arrangements. Bolus, on the other hand, just sounds like PT and any alternative group you could name (maybe Radiohead?). I don't normally like to fault bands for having influences, but many of the melodies and arrangements seem to be straight from PT. It gets bad enough that I was able to name some of the songs that were copied, and I don't even like PT that much.

All in all, this is a good album. It's not great. It's not essential. It's just good, and I guess that's okay. Neo-prog, this is not. Heavy prog or crossover prog, maybe.

Canadian trio BOLUS was formed ten years ago. They have three albums to their name so far, as well as a remastered and reissued version of their 2005 debut album as part of their discography. "Triangulate" is their most recent studio production, and was self-released by Bolus in 2013.

Canadian trio Bolus explores a melodic and accessible variety of progressive rock on their third album "Triangulate", managing to blend harmonic and dramatic details in a fine balance and flavoring the proceedings quite nicely and liberally with atmospheric sounds and textures. Fans of late 80's Rush and Porcupine Tree strike me as a key audience on this occasion, and especially those among them also fond of occasional mainstream oriented exploits of bands like Coldplay as well as the somewhat more intense and dramatic excursions of bands like The Mars Volta.