DECADENT LIGHTS

Being honest with myself and with the readers, I must say that when I received the CD called "Decadent Lights" by the USA band EVOLVE IV, I was unimpressed, found very little Prog to comment and for that reason I had no interest in the, but being that is was hard to send a mail to Peter Matuchniak (Founder of the band) telling him I had to reject his brainchild, specially being so nice, I gave them another listen.

And guess what? The band started growing on me more and more with each listen, I still believe they are not the most Prog band in history, but they have enough Progressive elements to be in Prog Related or maybe even in Crossover. So asked for their induction and they were admitted by the Administrator's team, something that pleased me a lot.

What can I say about the album?

Well, it's a nice blend of styles, characteristic of bands that come from USA in the XXIst Century, they present us an interesting fusion of various elements that go from simple mainstream to Heavy Prog, passing by some sort of Symphonic with Jazzy leanings, ambient, a bit of Country Music hints, and even good classic Rock & Roll with Power ballads.

If Progressive Rock consists in blending of different genres, well these guys do this with great style, so they deserve by own right to be in Prog Archives.

Michael Eager is always sober and competent in the vocals, but even better in the guitar, Peter Matuchniak is in charge of the keyboards and with all his experience fdoes an excellent job, both musicians well supported by a solid rhythm section formed ny Jim DeBaun (Bass) and Paul Sheriff in the drums. It's obvious we're in front of skilled musicians who will be outstanding when they find a unique sound in one determined sub-genre.

All the tracks are enjoyable, but the ones that impressed me more are the ever changing "Number 16", the jazzy "Listen Up", the incredibly well elaborate Rolling Along and of course the mysterious "Saturday's Gone".

Now, please don't consider my star rating too seriously, because we have guidelines, 5 stars is for a Prog Masterpiece, and this is not the case, 4 stars is for essential addition for any Prog collection, I believe they could be close to essential but for a music collection or even Rock collection, not for the case of Prog exclusively.

So I have to give them 3 stars, because that's what the guidelines indicate, but they deserve more despite not being totally Prog. If you are a Proghead who likes his favorite genre blended with other styles, this is your band, and in my case, "Decadent Light" is still spinning in my CD player.