...IT'S ONLY THE BEGINNING

Smaller countries seem to find their place on the prog map.Bahrain,Luxemburg and now Malta have presented some interesting releases through Osiris,No Name,Supper's Ready and this time is Chris Malia from Malta with his project DIFFERENT STRINGS,named after a Rush song.Malia is around the local scene since 1996,playing and recording with various short-lived bands,before going solo,preferering to choose a band's name for his personal work.For his first album Malia played all instruments and was helped by Alan Mayo on lead and backing vocals.''It's only the beginning...'' came out in 2006 on Progdome Records,a label,behind which has to be Malia himself.

The five tracks are placed so,that they start from the shortest one to end up on the album's opus ''Around the world''.I wouldn't call this album a full-blown prog effort,it is rather a straight rock album with prog and psychedelic leanings...A 3-min. nice keyboard-based grandiose intro will lead the listener to the first real track ''All over again'',which is a rocky guitar-driven song in the vein of ALAN PARSONS PROJECT,characterized by its distorted vocals and even some heavy ethnic tunes after the middle,followed by sharp synths.Just a mediocre track.''Dead man walking'' comes next and this was the band's first single back in 2004.Sorry to say,but if I had heard the track at the time of its release,I wouldn't ever purchase this CD.A boring almost alternative rock track crossed with a FLOYD-ian atmosphere,which carries the same guitar melody and flat vocals for over seven minutes.Skip this one!

Seems thing to change on the 10-min. all instrumental ''Beyond infinity''.At least he have to deal with some real prog music here,like DEEP PURPLE are jamming with DREAM THEATER.Though not that exciting,the track offers some good'n'heavy guitar riffing,decent solos,delicate piano work and strong keyboard acrobatics along the way.Finally a sign of Malia's talent.''Around the world'' comes next and I don't know why we have to wait for almost 4 minutes with needless spacey keys,before the rocking entrance in the vein of ''Season's end''-era MARILLION,followed by GILMOUR-ish soloing and a heavy organ-based DREAM THEATER-influenced middle section.A more relaxed and really pleasant atmosphere with piano,light guitars and flutes will introduce you to the ending section,where sharp keyboards return until the end.A track with irs ups and downs.

The truth is I wouldn't recommend this album to anyone,except modern neo prog fanatics.Malia ran out of ideas during the recordings,as some guitar melodies show again and again,not to mention the similarities between the two last tracks on their DREAM THEATER-inspired parts.However,the man seems to have talent in a couple of moments and supported by a regular band would give him the needed push IMO.Anyway,I think that no more or less than 2 stars trully show my feeling after I listened to this album.