SURFACE SERENE

Without a doubt, this album would've been named as the CD of the month. And I mean 'would have' because this album was released in July of 2003. So that makes it a bit difficult to still make it the CD of the month. I can't understand how it came to be that we only just found out about this wonderful album. Well, better late than never.

For the real lover of progressive rock, this CD can be considered as a God send. Just when everyone thought that Spock's Beard was 'the' predominant progressive rock band and that the level of quality of music couldn't get any higher, along comes a new American band who easily reaches that high level. This album contains all the styles that we know about in this genre of music. You hear fragments of Genesis, Yes, Kansas, Gentle Giant etc. But you can't easily characterize Little Atlas either and that's exactly what makes it so good. Even though the catchy melodies become more and more complex, you're still able to play them back in your head. At one moment it sounds classic and the next moment it sounds modern. It gets you thinking about bands such as Parallel Or 90 Degrees and Echolyn as well as Spock's Beard. This is neither certainly not progressive metal nor neo prog. At one moment the music sounds sensitive, but at the next moment it's again chaotic with widely varied keyboards and, of course, the demanded guitar solos. You can't remain unaffected by it.

Just because this album is from last year doesn't mean that it shouldn't be a part of your CD collection. You won't regret it for a second.

Hopefully their next CD will be of the same calibre and end up in our hands on time so that it'll have a fair chance to become CD of the month. It would've been in our yearly top ten list. It's too bad it missed the chance!