EPIGONE

Buckle in tight. This one is a real ride.

What a fantastic piece of work this is. There are so many good moments of gentle and mellow progressing to (and often exploding into) moments of heart pounding, double-kick, wall-of-sound, mayhem. Strong composition and creativity pour through this album. It's clear that a lot of time and effort went into getting this just right. Just right.

Don't be afraid of references that you will read of death metal growls. They are tastefully and judiciously used to add contract to Barry's beautiful, smooth vocals. Fans of Opeth (mid and later) will likely enjoy this album. Speaking of Opeth, there are parts, particularly in WoolGatherer where I am reminded of moments in Storm Corrosion where Mikael and Steven Wilson were chasing some scary, Scott Walker vibe. There's also a haunting interlude reminiscent of those on Tool's FI.

This is a dark album. Dark is the dominant mood, but there are still many nice, acoustic or well-orchestrated parts to give some balance, and Barry's vocals have a nice, sound throughout. There's also Identifier, which rocks some fantastic quitar riffs and barely explores some slightly more upbeat, almost pop-rock themes. Well, not really, it's still melancholic as a whole and it mixes in completely anarchistic changes and metal. There's nothing wrong with that!

This album is a really enjoyable listen. It's full of surprises and very interesting. It's one that you can try to put on in the background, but you will find that it routinely demands your attention with it's twists and turns. When it isn't demanding your attention, you will find yourself moving along to the varied rhythms as it maintains a pull. Give it your full attention and enjoy it even more.

Don't miss out on the bonus tracks which include a good cover of Radiohead's, "Everything in Its Right Place". They are as good as the rest of the album.

I listened to this album three time's back to back last night and again today with a fresh set of ears. Yep. She's Epic. Well done!

I came to this band with the knowledge that there are very similar to Opeth, a band that I like and are currently in a different approach with their sound that although I like makes me miss some of their old sonority. So I gave these guys a chance, expecting to hear some classic Opeth but praying that they were not some copy of their inspiration.

The first thing that surprised me was how they were much more oriented to folk. In the first music, we have a peaceful theme with an acoustic guitar that differs from what I expected. This harmonical theme soon was broken in the next song where growl comes and we have classic Opeth invading the record. I don't want to just keep saying in these reviews how they sound like something similar; they have their originality too. These come in elements like the folk style that I spoke about earlier, some songs have orchestral chorals too and in various parts, you have guitar solos that resemble more traditional progressive metal like Dream Theater or Riverside.

The instrumental is "OK" and the vocalist is average, his harmonic parts are nothing incredible and his growls are good. This band is not unoriginal but I find they very ordinary, in various parts we have long sections where the instrumental is very predictable, the band uses structures that those familiar with progressive metal will see what's coming next from miles away, this is a bad point especially because it removes the effect of surprise and did my interest in the album slowly fade away. These elements are even worsened by parts that are dragged for too long. I know long songs are common in progressive rock, but this album could really benefit from having shorter songs.

The last thing I should comment on is the production, are most parts it's ok except in moments where there is too much going on and the mix just become a little strange, without focus with the sounds just blending in strange ways, this bothers me because, for example, the growls that are good can never listen with total clarity.

This is album is not a disaster but is very average, it has some moments that could put a smile in the face of any prog rock fan, is sad that these moments are isolated in far places and to get to it is necessary to pass through sections that are so common that urge me to listen to their inspirations. If you are a fan of progressive metal and specially Opeth I still recommend you to listen to it, maybe I just being an annoying guy because there are pretty high ratings for this album, but for me, this is not an album that I will come back soon to listen. 2 Stars