4

No Name's fourth album is named likewise and I must admit I have no comparison to earlier albums. After several listening sessions 4 makes a fresh impression on me. This is indeed straightforward neo prog and with this release this band can be placed in the higher regions of the subgenre as far as I'm concerned. Not that it appeared a mindblowing experience but it's at least on some moments impressive.

Opening track The Curse is second longest of the album and is pretty vocally dominated. For an over 10 minute song it's remarkable there are so few instrumental passages to be found. I'm a real fan of those so I'm slightly disappointed about that but at least the vocalist is a real good one. The keyboards sound Marillion-like but the overall sound is just a bit alike. 3,75*.

Fountains of Dreams is again vocally dominated but this track is less compelling than previous. This one is half as long as previous and instrumental bits are even more absent here. To me the least song of the album. 3,25*.

Thoughts pay no Toll is almost a copy of previous but at least this one contains a nice key solo and therefore I will add a quarter of a star. 3,5*.

A Recollection of Dreams has the length of a true epic and it also has some features of it but it doesn't strike me as one of the best composed epics I ever heard. The build up is good though and it's the first track where enough room is given to the instrumental parts though even here the vocals win the battle. And they are very well executed too so in the end this track deserves a high rating. 4*.

With Visions I suddenly hear much resemblance with the vocalist of Knight Area (Mark Smit), maybe Patrick Kiefer is slightly better even but again this is a great vocal performance. Great guitar as well halfway the song making this nearly 10 minute song probably the best of the album. 4,5*.

Promises is another impressive song to close the album with and I wonder why not all songs on this release are like this. Good alternation between vocals and instruments. In this case they just did this with the three last songs. 4,25* for this.

This album has the same build up as Maze of Time's Lullaby album. Hardly impressive with first few songs but getting better and better later on. There's always the danger that if it's checked in the store or anywhere with first tracks that the potential buyer will leave it but other than that I like this way of building up an album. It leaves you with a satisfied feeling because the last songs are the ones that will be in the mind afterwards. Anyway, well done here No Name and it's a deserved four star effort in the end mainly because of the second best (behind Moon Safari) vocal performance I ever experienced in prog !