BRIGHTEYE BRISON

BRIGHTEYE BRISON came in life in 2000 in Stockholm,when Linus Kase joined forces with Royal College of Music's student Kristofer Eng.The line-up was completed with Linus' elder brother Daniel and drummer Johan Oijen.Influenced by 70's progressive rock,the band recorded their first full-length album between 2001 and 2002,finally released in 2003 on Rivel Records.The mastering and mix of the album was completed by Per Hallman,later to join the band as a full-time member.

STYLE: Unquestionably this is a mixed bag of sounds with obvious 70's references,headed by the 30-min. epic ''One year alone'',which represents everything around BRIGHTYEY BRISON's sound.The compositions can be adventuruous,challenging and rich yet always catchy and melodic.Lots of piano-driven grooves,symphonic passages,intricate interplays,soft ballad moments,even some fusion parts.In the vocal section contribute three out of four members, delivering often very interesting polyphonic parts.The band insist on using mainly analog keys (organ,mellotron),however the sound is very modern,fresh and pleasant. Heavy Rock,Symphonic Prog,Fusion even Pop are mixed in this album in an interesting way.

INFLUENCES/SOUNDS LIKE: From the 70's imagine the melody and harmonic parts of GENESIS and YES mixed with RUSH's power and GENTLE GIANT/QUEEN multi-vocal harmonies.The closer modern comparison are definitely SPOCK'S BEARD with some touches of compatriots A.C.T. and THE FLOWER KINGS.

PLUS: Despite the variety of influences,BRIGHTEYE BRISON manage to blend them in an awesome way.Fusion meets Pop meets Classic 70's Prog in every track and in a great catchy way.Analog use of keyboards make the sound pleasantly nostalgic.The vocals are excellent,both on the individual or multi-parted performances.Production is of top class.

MINUS: Total lack of originality I would dare to say,with plenty of the contained stuff sounding like SPOCK'S BEARD more than SPOCK'S BEARD themselves.Calmer material can't be even compared with the more intensive parts,being dramatically of less interest.

WILL APPEAL TO:...Classic Prog fans and music followers who want to start their journey to progressive music with a quite catchy album representing the Classic Prog sound today.

CONCLUSION/RATING: ''Brighteye brison'' is a real winner among modern bands' debuts and contains all of this material,which made us love prog music.The band however should find its own identity on the way,before being accused as another clone.The talent is there,I bet they can do it much much better.3.5 stars.