TOTAL VICTORY

Chest Rockwell

Neo-Prog

3.54 | 14 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Easy Livin
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin

A partial victory

In 2009, Chest Rockwell returned with their latest album to date. Easily their most accomplished release, "Total victory" unfortunately remains deficient in the production and vocal areas. Admittedly, the vocals are an improvement on previous albums, but for my money they tend to spoil the overall sound. On the plus side, the songs are noticeably more melodic and the arrangements generally interesting. The guitar work is once again the high point of the album, complemented well by the keyboards when they are present. To these ears though, the sound is rather raw overall, an issue which greater use of keyboards might have gone a long way to addressing.

Things get off to a rather inauspicious start with some decidedly distasteful, perhaps even offensive lyrics for no obvious reason. The band go to some effort to embellish the songs, including some extensive use of archive audio recordings, especially on "Within 10 Paces I Cannot Fail", where they are the focus of the track.

The latter part of the album, starting with the instrumental "11 is the New 7" sees the band exploring generally heavier territories, sometimes with a metallic edge. These tracks tend to benefit from the shift in that direction, mainly because they feel more finished.

From a prog perspective, while one could argue that there are occasional nuances of such in the arrangements, this is almost exclusively an indie/alternative rock set. I must admit to total bemusement at the band's classification on this site as Neo-prog", but that is an issue to be dealt with by the site, as far as I can see the band lay no claims that their music is of that ilk.

Easy Livin | 3/5 | 2011-10-22

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Share this CHEST ROCKWELL review

Social review comments () BETA

Review related links

Send comments to Easy Livin
Report this review (#554436)
Buy CHEST ROCKWELL music online with PA partners
Show all CHEST ROCKWELL MP3/Stream
Go to CHEST ROCKWELL page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
Go to Total Victory page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
Search the Forum for CHEST ROCKWELL related discussions