230503

The patchily shaven cheek of neo prog is offered up for a kiss on this stunning debut. From inspiration to release, "230503" was a 6 year project motivated by the desire to pay tribute to a departed friend, but morphed into a twisted and tragic work of fiction. The story is secondary to its capacity to unify over an hour of diversity, a task too seldom undertaken let alone achieved in neo prog.

It's all here, the tortured vocals, the dreamy sequences, the soaring leads, the metallic riffs, and the sprawling epics, but playing like a short of breath narrative. From the opening notes, it beckoned to me, reminding me of a heavier CLEPSYDRA, and the brief acoustic bridge to "Leaving Here Tonight" seals the blueprints to an album that really gets transitions. While I may have been ambivalent or even hostile towards numbers like "The Bond of Mutual Distrust", I eventually succumbed to the loftier ambitions. The alternating floating and percussive segment before the end of this thrasher make the final convulsions all the more memorable. I had no such misgivings about "Flying/Falling" and "The Collapse", both of which encapsulate all that works here and throughout, including that elusive optimal mix of sung and instrumental passages, from keyboard soaked atmospherics to enchanting variations on vocal melodies.

An album may be, and usually is, a mere a collection of tracks that we listen to and shelve, or it may harmonize our own experience within its grooves. "230503" belongs firmly in the latter division, with a rare gift to offer only those who surrender to it.