UNWEAVING THE RAINBOW

FAMESHIFT is the project of Henning Pauly (CHAIN) to spread the gospel of Darwinism.The title of the album comes from the title of one of Richard Dawkin's books. In fact each song is based on a character from one of his many books. He has James LaBrie on vocals, Pauly himself plays guitars, keyboards and more. I''m not familiar with the drummer and bass player.This clocks in at a long 79 1/2 minutes.

"Above The Grass-Part 1" is a short intro of nature sounds, strummed guitar and reserved vocals. "The Gene Machine" sounds good early but then it settles as the vocals arrive. Contrasts continue. "Spiders" isn't good at all. James is almost rapping early on with this funky rhythm. It changes some but the damage is already done. "River Out Of Eden" sounds good instrumentally but it calms right down when the reserved vocals arrive. Some nice guitar after 4 minutes. "Message From The Mountain" opens with piano as guitar joins in then bass as it builds. It goes from mellow to fairly bombastic. "Your Eyes" is a folky tune. "La Mer" opens with piano and fragile vocals.Yikes. Not a fan. "Nice Guys Finish First" is worse. Uptempo with organ early. Man I don't like this tune.

"Arms Races" is much better as it turns quite heavy duty with processed vocals joining in. Unfortunately it changes to a lighter sound, although the contrasts do continue. "Orgins And Miracles" is beautiful to start but i'm not a fan of the rest. "Off The Ground" opens with organ followed by some ripping guitar. Nice. Vocals before 1 1/2 minutes. I like the sound before 3 1/2 minutes. "Walking Through Genetic Space" is vocals only to open. It then calms right down with reserved vocals, light drums,bass and guitar. "Cultural Genetics" is cool sounding early on instrumentally. Processed vocals then it kicks in heavily. It doesn't keep going though sadly. A patchy song at best. "Bats" is atmospheric early on. I like it. It changes for the worse though when the vocals arrive. "Above The Grass-Part 2" ends this album much like it began.

Poor is the word that comes to mind, and to have almost 80 minutes of it is a tough pill to swallow. Fans of LaBrie or Dawkins might be intererested.