WHEN AGE HAS DONE ITS DUTY

This band has been flying under the radar for a while before they exploded onto the scene with this album, releaese by F2/Festival Records and getting some mainstream magazines attention with the aid of this label. Well deserved, too. The band is lead by Rob Armstrong who is the only full time member. But he is helped by It Bites, The Tangent and Also Eden members on his albums. And they all do a great job they can and should be proud of.

The result of all this work is a melancholic neo-prog album with a lot of references to Manning, The Tangent, Dw Dunphy and Steven Wilson. It is essentially a British neo prog album, soundwise. It is the product of a strong vision which does not follows any trends. Call it a cottage industry product if you want. The end result is very comparable with what the other cottage industry bands Manning and The Tangent is doing. Cosmograf and these bands are very underground.

In short; if you like melancholic prog and the likes of The Tangent and Manning; flash your credit card towards Cosmograf.

The sound is excellent. Both on a big stereo rack and on a MP3 player. It needs to be because the songs demands full clarity. The songs has some hard guitars and some great electric guitar solos. But most of all; this is a pastoral album which does not shout. It rather whisper most of the time. It is said that Rob Armstrong has a special voice which is an aquired taste. Is it ? His voice is superb and perfectly well suited for the material on this album. Material which off course is written by Rob for his own voice.

When Age Has Done It's Duty is a concept album about growing old and coming to terms with it. It was written after his own personal experiences with this issue in his near family. A good theme. That means the album is very melancholic and themed towards an issue most people have difficult dealing with. The very strong title track is a track most here will find difficult to deal with. That includes myself for personal reasons. The thirteen minutes long title track is brilliant and the best song on this album. But not with much. The other songs are superb too. Yes, the theme is a bit depressing and not good news when dealing with a body who rattles, creaks and groans. "When Age Has Done It's Duty". Yes, I know the feeling....... Hand me the deep heat spray, love.

But it is not the (painful) familiarity with the stuff and lyrical topics on this album which awards this album almost a top score in my view. It is the melodies and the whole ambience of the album which I am falling for. I regard this album as the best neo-prog album I have heard since Clutching At Straws (Marillion) and a masterpiece. I am inbetween 4.75 and 5 stars here. But despite not being top notch here, this album will probably grow a lot more on me in the coming years. The lyrics too is very strong and will resonates with a lot of ProgArchives members. Hence, I award five stars and ignores the wagging finger from the forum engine.

5 stars

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