IN HUMAN SIGHT

This Israeli project is in fact a one man band by the Israeli musician Tom Treivish. After some years of playing in several projects he decided to take his material to the next logical level and record an album. Namely, the one I'm reviewing today, In Human Sight (2013). This is a concept album that deals with the human perception of the lives of animals and it is meant to serve as a voice for the voiceless. Not just that, Tom takes this very seriously and he donates 20% of all album sales directly to animal rights organizations.

The first thing that called my attention was the really clever cover of the album by the artist Steven Kenny. It portraits a man using a halter that is used usually on horses, but on the album cover butcher's knives are used near the eyes.

The album starts with 'In Human Sight', the title-track. It has a riff that is kinda familiar and the guitar in the background has Alan Parsons Project influence. The transition to the second track 'Cage Bound' is made of some conversations and animal noises, which will be repeated throughout the album. When the new song kicks in it's completely different from the instrumental opener track. It's slower and more like a Rock ballad than Prog Rock. 'House Of Slaughter' is a darker piece of music and Tom's vocals and lyrics reflect that.

By the time of 'Inside A Square' even if the music is interesting and very well written, one starts to wonder about Tom Treivish ideas. I'll not go into details if I agree or not with him and why, but it's hard to just focus on the music when he wants to state his visions so strongly with the lyrics, almost to the point of preaching. The music kinda goes to a second plane on In Human Sights (2013).

'The Blind Spot' follows the slower tempo songs but the following track 'Condiments And Blood' is almost an Electronic Rock piece and is lost in the overall feeling of the album. Then 'Science Moved On' comes along with its great atmospheric intro, probably the best track on the album. 'Part Of The Fold' is another very good track that resembles Green Violinist's sound.

The last two tracks on In Human Sight (2013) are 'We Bleed For Real' and 'Voiceless'. The first is more modern and doesn't have much Prog in it with its sleepy drum line (by Ethan Raz). The second is more atmospheric but still, more of a Rock ballad very well played than Prog, special mention to bass player Adi Har Zvi on this last song. The last song also has some Anathema influence on it.

ProtoMythos (and Tom Treivish) is a band with a vision. It's well written music and very well recorded and produced by Tom itself and Noam Akrabi. But when it comes to Progressive Rock it lacks some more depth, it lacks some daring moments I would say. Most of the time the album fells on the old scheme verse-chorus-verse. Now about the concept and lyrics, even if it's a nice thing to have someone speaking his heart out and trying to voice out his ideas, especially in our soulless days music, it's hard to listen to In Human Sight (2013) if you don't actually agree with everything that's been saying in the songs.

I would suggest it to people that share the same vision as Tom's. For those that don't share the same point of view it's like forcing ideas into their heads, it's like preaching. And nobody likes preaching!

(Originally posted on progshine.net)

Israeli project PROTOMYTHOS appears first and foremost to be the creative vehicle of composer and musician Tom Treivish, who in 2012 decided to develop material he had written over a number of years to the level where these compositions could be recorded and released. The end result became the album "In Human Sight", which was self-released in the late summer of 2013.

The debut album of the Israeli band Protomythos comes across as a compelling production that should have a fairly broad potential audience, with music that without ever being truly comparable to either of them still manages to conjure associations to the likes of Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree and late 80's Rush, with a fair degree of additional familiar sounding elements having an origin in music of a more mainstream orientation. It is a likeable and well made production on just about all levels, although the concept explored may put some people off. Still, if you enjoy well made, accessible progressive rock in general this is a CD worth taking a look at.