DON'T BRING THE RAIN

Among the very consistent of Aussie progressive rock,ARAGON chose to play radio-friendly progressive rock with catchy melodies and strong vocals.Informations are somewhat scarce,but the band was established in Melbourne in 1986 by singer Les Dougan,guitarist John Poloyannis and keyboardist Tom Behrsing.They were joined by bassist Ron Bacon and drummer Tony Italia and released ''Don't bring the rain'' as a mini-LP in 1987.Soon after both Bacon and Italia left the group and the same album was re-recorded as a full length release in 1990 with three more tracks,using bass sequencers and drum programming.

ARAGON's style lies somewhere between MARILLION's dark yet melodic prog,early-PENDRAGON's groovy style with nice riffing and RUSH'es 80's powerful rock.Keyboards are everywhere,mainly in their digital form,from good solos,nice track's openers to even somekind of a rhythm section.The guitar work of Poloyannis is very dynamic,delivering catchy melodies and decent solos,while Dougan's voice is absolutely fantastic and if you can imaagine FISH in his angriest moments,you'll have a nice picture of how he sounds like.If you're searching for anykind of complex prog,skip immediately.If you're after some trully well-crafted melodic yet powerful prog rock,ARAGON are your band.A very good debut by a band you should keep an eye on.Recommended.