FORSAKEN INNOCENCE

Due to inexplicable reasons, this record reminds me a lot of early progressive metal (Fates Warning and early Dream Theater). More than Neo-Prog, I find it to be progressive metal oriented. Taking up serious influence from Marillion, Drifting Sun have released what is probably their best record to date, and a very solid album.

A very noticeable property of this album when you first hear it is that there's a wide variety of instruments (string instruments and at moments wind instruments), although these feel very flat and are there just to reinforce the main melody of the current song. Every long song suffers a very interesting effect of being enjoyably dynamic, with multiple sections, yet still staying in the same territory and sound. In other words, dynamic but not surprising. The best song from the album is probably the opener, after that the quality of every song feels worse.

The vocalist, John Kosmidis, doesn't really stand out, he sounds like almost every other neo-prog singer. He can sing, but his small baritone register really doesn't help him stand out from the rest of the band. The guitarist, Mathieu Spaeter, is ok. He does his job, but to be fair he doesn't stand out either. His solos are pretty average.

The keyboardist, Pat Sanders, definitely did a good job, and was probably the best out of the five musicians. I enjoyed his solos and he's apparently capable of providing atmosphere. The bassist, John Jowitt, also did a reasonably good job, and I like how noticeable the bass is in the mix. The drummer, just like the guitarist, simply did his job, maintaining a drum base and not adding many drum fills.

The album, as I said before, borrow a lot from Marillio, Fates Warning and I.Q. but I wouldn't say it's as good as those three band's best works. A solid Neo-Prog album, and definitely recommend it to any neo-prog fan. Three Stars.