CAUGHT BY THE MACHINE

The Room is the name of a Crossover Prog band founded in the UK in 2010. The band was founded by Martin Wilson (vocalist) and Steve Anderson (guitar, keyboards, backing vocals). As far as the current line up in 2019, the two founding members are still active in the band along with Andy Rowe on bass, Chris York on drums, Eric Bouilette on guitar and violin, and Mark Dixon on keyboards. They have released 3 full length albums since 2012, including the album "Caught by the Machine" in early 2019.

The album has a loose concept dealing with how certain things have power to make people to do actions they would normally not do and how we can become addicted to those things to the point that we don't have to think for ourselves. It's a concept that has been done many times before, but the lyrics are decent enough. There really isn't a specific item that that they focus on, it can mean anything from technology to drugs, its up to the listener to decide.

Wilson's vocals are quite similar to Michael Sadler from "Saga", but not always quite as dynamic. The music on this album, for the most part, is simple and mostly straightforward with an occasional progressive sound, but not really very challenging. You could almost compare it to "Saga" also, but more similar to their less interesting pop music than their better progressive rock. The first 5 songs stay locked in safe mode, and don't really move away from the lite-progressive, pop / rock style.

"Drowning in Sound" is the band's self-proclaimed epic track, and the first one on the album to approach and break the 8 minute mark. After listening to 5 other tracks that barely scratch the Progressive sound, I have some doubts. The verses are farily typical of what we have already heard, but the chorus is suddenly more upbeat switching from 4 / 4 to 6 / 8. A guest female singer takes the vocal lead at 4 minutes. After another chorus, at 6 minutes things mellow out to a piano and guitar and later a violin taking the lead. Though there is a bit more progressiveness here, it is really nothing to get excited about, as there isn't anything very challenging here either.

The next 3 tracks stay around the 8 minute mark. Unfortunately, they don't offer anything other than mostly straightforward rock with a few nice guitar solos, but there isn't a lot of substance there even though the tracks are longer. The last track is "Bloodstream" which has a nice driving beat, but a lousy processed vocal that tries to sound dark and evil, but mostly fails.

The album is pretty much your average power pop music with a few attempts at trying to sound progressive. Once it is all over though, there is nothing that stands out here as being unique or interesting, and the songs pretty much all just melt together in a mostly moderate tempo of tracks. If you want something that is light on the progressiveness that has a lot of pop / rock style, and you like "Saga"s vocals, then you might like this, but don't expect anything challenging and you'll be okay.