ECHOLYN

(okay, it's not that bad. BLOMLJUD is that bad, not this.)

When it comes to ECHOLYN's second eponymous album, you can't dismiss the band's warm and catchy melodies, but you can certainly dismiss the safe and uninteresting arrangements. I don't know about you, but I like experimentalism in my morning bowl of milk and crunchy prog rock. But, ECHOLYN... lads, where's the boldness? The uncategorizable sounds, the unexplored melodies, and arrangements that make prog, progressive? Where? That's my first issue with this album.

I'll be fair, there are stances where prog isn't necessarily what I described as an ideal prog rock accompaniment to morning milk bowls. Epitaph, pretty much all of STEVEN WILSON's solo work, ECHOLYN itself are good examples of that deviation of the norm... and none of them ring a bell to me. Truth be told, my enmity towards ECHOLYN lies mostly on a level of personal taste rather than an "objective" (if such term is even applicable to music) lackluster concept or performance by the band. Come to think of it, I am hostile towards Crossover Prog in general, and this album is the prime definition, or at least in my mind the paramount example of such ProgArchives-created genre, so no wonder this characteristic is my second issue regarding the record.

With that in mind, I can sum up my whole concept very shortly: I like energetic, lively, fluid music. Dynamic rhythm, innovation, unforeseen ideas are all important to me. Crossover Prog hardly fits those criteria (when it does, like in the track Headright, I take off my hat). So I end up not liking it. ECHOLYN sounds like it. I end up not liking it. La Fin.

If you like music that sounds like Crossover Prog, ignore me and give it this a go. If it ain't your thing, though? Avoid this. Go check SUFFOCATING THE BLOOM and observe, drowning in an amalgam of shock and gloom, how ECHOLYN totally nails GENTLE GIANT-esque creativity... and fifteen years later, seems to completely forget how to do so.

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