THE SKY IS FALLING

Well, when I heard about this american band I rushed to get a CD, since I´m a big fan of the neo prog genre. After repeated listens, however, I´m still wondering why Days Before Tomorrow was labeled as such. Their debut album The sky Is Falling has nothing to do with neo prog as far as I´m concerned (unless you´re one of those who think neo prog is actually pop music disguised as prog, of course). DBT plays a kind of melodic hard rock/AOR/Arena rock with some hints of prog here and there. So if you´re thinking of something similar to Marillion, IQ, Collage, Flamborough Head or other great ones, forget it. On the other hand, if you enjoy energetic, well crafted, pop rock songs, welcome aboard!

The Sky Is Falling has many fine moments of arena/melodic rock . Singer Eric Scott Klein has an excellent clean and strong. voice for this kind of music (in the vein of other classic ones like Foreigner´s Lou Gramm or Boston´s Brad Delp). The instrumentation is also very good, with an excellent guitar work by Scott Kahn and Derek Davodowich. The rhyhtm section is also very good and versatile. All arrangements are very tasteful, including some typical backing vocals. The CD seems to be a concept album of sorts, but except for a couple of vignettes there are no fillers. Their powerful sound is helped a lot by the very clean production.

Conclusion: an excellent melodic rock CD, no less. If PA was an AOR site I´d gladly give The Sky Is Falling a four star rating, or pehaps even more. But since this is a prog site, and Days Before Tomorrow has few (if any) real prog credentials, a 3 star rating is more than adequate.