BEYOND THE EXOSPHERE

Having grown up in St. Catharines Ontario, home of Neil Peart, and having lived in Toronto, I kind of consider Rush 'my band' in the way sports fans are endeared to their city teams. Once I got familiar with Dream Theater out of neighbouring USA- I looked at them as an American version of our Rush.

Now comes along Pyramid Theorem out of Toronto and what comes to mind is: Canada's 'Dream Theater?'

Not sure if the band would agree with this assessment, because they wear their Rush influences openly, but thankfully not in an overtly copy-cat fashion. They seem quite true to themselves.

First of all the musicianship across the board here is catastrophically good i.e. 'impressive...most impressive'. However you can only get so far on chops alone. Instagram for example is full of multitudes of faceless guitarists performing jaw-dropping calisthenics that will discourage as many newbie musicians as inspire them. What has to be acknowledged is that without 'the song' it's all just a sandwich without bread- or even much of the substance in between.

So that's what I specifically looking for in Pyramid Theorem's third album 'Beyond the Exosphere'--- substance and body that will hit the spot- and it delivers...truly meat and potatoes prog of the ballsy kind. The first place I found it was in the songwriting which is strong melodically speaking. PT are symphonic as often as they are riff-driven. The keyboards capture the spirit of classical music sometimes, with fat choral choral keyboard samples in Closer to the End for example. And Monster starts off with appropriately monstrous riffs. There's some duelling solos between guitars and keyboards here and there, reminding me of Dream Theater. Overall there's good variety of feel over the album and so we avoid any excess fat or tedium.

Now to the vocals, which are excellent thoughout- strong, clear and powerful (no growling that I'm aware of in the band). There's lots of terrific harmonizing as well- in fact a majority of the singing is done harmonized. That was a slight point of confusion for me. Is there a single dominant lead singer? The album credits three singers in the band of four (not the drummer, no surprise. He keeps busy enough without having to sing). I'm sensing there is perhaps an effort to share singing rather than any one vocalist becoming the focus. It works for me. Marketing-wise, I don't know if the cigar chomping business execs would approve of no poster boy singer in the band, swinging his mic in circles. But, like I said, it works for me!

I like the lyrical content- with timely comments relative to the lockdowns in progress when the album was released in 2020 for example. "We raise our voices!" Yes, ya darn right we do!

One additional comment before we score the album. Symmetry. This album as a whole has got it. As the end track fades off into the sunset, the aftertaste is sweet.

So prog fans, rejoice! Pyramid Theorem delivers meat and potatoes prog. Beyond the Exosphere -being on the dense side instrumentally- requires repeat listens to parse out all of the tasteful substance so let it grow on you. It's an excitement- worthy album from an excitement-worthy band.