TURN OF THE TIDE

Yesterday I saw this cover in the new releases and thought 'This kind of reminds me of Jon Anderson's "Olias of Sunhillow" cover', so I decided to investigate? Imagine my surprise to find that these guys were in a Yes tribute band and I was even more intrigued?

Then, upon seeing that this project had had no reviews here on PA (until today), I decided to take it upon myself to investigate their website, and after seeing a video of these two performing "Birth of a Hero" I decided to check out their latest; "Turn of the Tide". Am I ever glad I did!!!

This is a two man project, but they sound as though they were a five piece band indeed! There is of course the novelty of knowing that what you're hearing is just two men, but it is so easy with the strength of this material to get well past the novelty pretty quickly. The fact is that these guys have crafted a very full sounding, solid, enjoyable album!

Due to the fact that I'm pressed for time (sorry about that), I'm not going to try to do a track by track review.

But I will say that if you're a fan of Rush, Yes, ELP, Arena, etc., with a dose of modern Prog Metal thrown in to balance the mix, I think you will seriously enjoy this album. You'll find that Steve Adams is a more than competent guitarist/multi-instrumentalist as well as a very strong singer in his own right. And that Merrill Hale would appear to be the perfect foil and complementary player to Mr. Adams. These guys are exceptionally capable and have really left me impressed with their playing, singing and songwriting abilities.

After a couple of listening sessions, I cannot pick a standout track (Well, maybe Twilight) as this material is so well balanced overall. I have not found one "duff", filler song on this effort.

This is MAJESTIC, full-bodied Heavy Prog with awesome touches of Symphonic Prog and Progressive Metal to round out the mix.

This is another review that I intend to revisit and do due justice to in the near future? But I thought that you all might want a first impression. Here's mine: This is going to be a band to be reckoned with in the near future, catch onto them NOW before everyone else does, so you can be the first on your block to say "I thought these guys were awesome way back in?" Trust me, this is an awesome album!!! Of course as always, your actual mileage may vary, but I'm giving this at least Four plus stars?