OUT OF ABBFINOOSTY COMES THE STORM

Those who claim that progressive rock too often lacks the "rock" component could do well to listen to "Out of Abbfinoosty Comes the Storm". On the other hand, one might question whether Abbfinoosty always retains the "progressive" tag, as at times Asif and his hired men sound most like a hard bluesy rock outfit. This is especially true on "When the Son Explodes" and "Saddest Girl".

One thing that is clear is that the range of styles and approach to each song is unorthodox, and Abbfinoosty does not set out to do what has already been done. So although "Cyberspace" is spare and features mostly vocals and mixed-high drums for most of its duration, it draws upon such a range of influences as to be hard to pigeonhole, like it or not. I hear 80s technopop for instance, but with added inventiveness and experimentation. While I am not particularly critical of simplistic lyrics, I do have a limit on cliches, which is where "Love like This" really fails, apart from dragging its semi-interesting hook on so long that it ends up sounding pedestrian. "Churchyard" and "Hawk" improve on this general idea by adding spacier elements and shrouding the words a bit more, but neither are what I would call real winners either.

The album does feature some strong material - "Interstellar" is a lively tune with an appropriately otherworldly character driven by Asif's most expressive guitar solo. Things really mellow out later in the album with 3 ballads, "Hell or High Water" and the even better "Dream" and "Soul Catcher", but I would have preferred that the drum level be dropped a bit just to break from the general character of the rest of the material. These songs almost seem like they may have been conceived at a different time as they are so much gentler than what came before. The choruses on the latter 2 are both hook-laden and radio friendly without being cloying.

This album presents a veritable storm of influences sometimes successfully integrated, sometimes less so. The effort is always there, but sometimes the production choices and arrangements are lacking, and the track running order is not chosen with the best care, so I ultimately dock a half star.