TURNING THE TIDE (AS ARS NOVA)

I received a request earlier this year to review the debut album by Cheat The Prophet, a progressive band I had not previously heard of. Nothing strange there, as it is not unusual for bands to contact me, but I realised they had previously been active in the Nineties as Nepenthe, whose album I had reviewed (1997's 'Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt'). However, on doing some digging I could see that Nepenthe themselves had originally had another name, Ars Nova, so now I am listening to their debut album from 1993.

The 1993 band comprised Matt Mizenko (bass), Todd Mizenko (guitars), Jamie Boruch (drums), Eddie Konczal (keyboards), who all performed on the Nepenthe release, plus singer Keith Watlington. In these days of glossy magazines devoted to prog music plus all the websites devoted to the topic, it can sometimes be difficult to remember that when this album was released none of that existed and the only publicity came from underground fanzines and word of mouth. I ran 'Feedback' and felt I had a very good handle on what was happening in the UK, a pretty good idea of Europe, but only had contacts with a few record labels in the States so unless an album was released on something like Kinesis or Magna Carta, I never heard it. Consequently, this album is new to me, and I was simply blown away by just how good it is. Here we have a prog band who are certainly not performing as if it is a debut, bringing together the idea of Neo with the commerciality of Crossover plus melodic rock stylings which makes this an album which is still relevant and enjoyable today, more than 30 years after it was released.

Not all prog albums from back then have aged well, as some were pretty much demos, but here we have something which is well produced and a load of fun the very first time it is played and just keeps getting better. True, it is a commercial and very American style of prog, but is one I have enjoyed a great deal, and it is strange to come across this only because I was sent an album to review which had been released 32 years later. Well worth investigation if this style of prog is to your liking.

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