DISPERSE

Prepare for your journey through the hidden gardens of sheer beauty, intriguing brilliance and exciting and colourful encounters of emotional depth while exploring the vastness of this enchanting wonderworld...

Each and every song is so well thought out, full of phantastic ideas, that inspire your imagination and litteraly take you on a journey. Overall this little gem is so pure and fresh and one of the best debuts I ever had the pleasure to discover.

Consistency, versatility of the songs and the throughout masterful compositions make this an unforgettable experience, very unique in it's own way!

4.8 / 5 Stars!

"Disperse bring the often repetitive 'djent' sound to a wider range of influences, incorporating atmospheric progressive rock and ambient into the standard chuggy tone. In a scene of Periphery and Animals as Leaders clones, Disperse stand out with their melodic delivery and atmospheric base."

But unfortunately, around 3 months ago, I managed to get my hands on their debut, "Journey Through the Hidden Gardens". Journey had been on my list of stuff I should hear for a very long time, but finding many of these can be a trouble. I loved the album from the start, the band finding a unique balance between neo-prog and metal, in a way only Dec Burke's many different bands has achieved. But with this, the follow-up, they have regressed. Regressed to a second-rate djent band. Admittedly better than 98% of djent bands, but this is a regression nonetheless.

If you search through my previous ratings, you'll see that I actually gave Periphery's second output a positive score, as well as a few for lesser-known bands like Oceanwalker, Wings Denied and Loxodrome. But most of these ratings have been in spite of the chuggy guitars, not because of. And to hear a band with such a lush and fantastic sound fall to this clichéd and overpopulated scene of bedroom projects is a real shame.

Of course, this was just an expectation. As my rating suggests, this isn't actually a bad album. Admittedly it hits dangerously close to cliché, and the autotune-laden "Unbroken Shiver" is almost unlistenable, although you have to give them points for inventiveness. When the album shifts from djent and into the rather ambient neo-prog, we hear some rather nice results.

However, for every nice moment, there is an equally bad one. The wonderful intro of "Dancing With Endless Love" is destroyed in the mess of "Enigma of Abode", which takes from Periphery's weird electronic side to some almost power metal riffing. Every time a nice chorus comes in, a huge slurry of messy riffs and chugging overwhelms. Even the ambience is incredibly unoriginal, with most of the "noodly" guitars coming directly from the Animals As Leaders camp.

To be completely honest, if I want to enjoy this record, I have to think of this as a completely different band. I will always admire a band who take rapid changes, like when Periphery went for melodic over metalcore for their second release, it truly changed my views of them. But I feel Disperse have gone the wrong way. If Living Mirrors was the debut and Journey was the sophomore, I would hail them as fantastic innovators.

But "djent", is a very childish scene. I can't say this without sounding like a tool, but although there are bands I enjoy within the scene, it feels like something one grows out of, not into. There's a reason djent bands are generally teenagers in their bedrooms masturbating to Meshuggah riffs.

You've got to think of this as a debut. And if it was, I'd call Disperse a promising band who show signs of producing something great. But unfortunately, these boys have already done something great, and it is named "Journey Through The Hidden Gardens".

Originally written for my facebook page/blog facebook.com/neoprogisbestprog

Disperse propose an affair between atmospheric and virtuosic Progressive Metal in the vein of RIVERSIDE and DREAM THEATER along with touches of more melodic Polish Progressive/Art Rock akin to bands such as SATELLITE, LOONYPARK or ANANKE.Most of the time the sound swirls around impressive and rich keyboard parts and very angular riffs with the group delivering technical and sharp musicianship with endless big-time breaks, leading this virtuosic style either to deep atmospheric textures or accesible and memorable choruses.There is a great and mature balance between instrumental grandiosity and vocal performances with even some narration parts and the overall offering is as professional as it gets, as the tracks have an appropriate length for such flexible changes.Disperse never forget to add a few good melodies here and there and their style can be heard by the majority of prog fans, incorporating elements from Space Rock, Neo Prog, Symphonic Rock/Metal and Progressive Metal.My only complaint is the rather unpersonal style, which springs to mind a different legend of the Prog Metal/Rock scene each time, but the well-played material is very rewarding.

A young Polish group with a strong amount of talent.Challenging, intricate and balanced arrangements with great performances, that only need a bit of refreshment towards a more original style.Strongly recommended...3.5 stars.

For the most part this is prog metal, but with large amounts of neo-prog thrown in for good measure. It is hard to pick out a highlight from the album as it is so good throughout, and while the guys are all strong musicians it is the guitar of Jakub Żytecki that really takes this to the next level. They say that they are heavily influenced by bands as diverse as Cynic, Toto, Portal, Aeon Spoke, Planet X, Devin Townsend and Allan Holdsworth, and they certainly manage to capture the fluidity of Holdsworth's guitar solos. There is loads of atmosphere on this album, and the result is something that is polished and packed full of emotion. Given that this is now two years old we can only hope that there is a new album due sometime soon.

to begin, literally the guitarist has the most important role in this band, his imagination and playing style is so impressive that I'm repeating his solos all over again without even getting bored of each note, its like combining Vai and Petrucci together. in addition to the smart solid and creative structure of the songs which makes the whole picture intimately perfect..

although of very good and catchy vocal melodies, the vocalist is suffering weak English pronunciation like many other polish bands, still, his emotional and good performance overcome this weakness, creating with the other musicians en-bloc a master piece in prog scene,

I'm not exaggerating by the above depiction, its has been now more than 6 months since I start listening to their debut album and still find something new in the songs with Goose- bumps from time to time..

Far away, balance of creator and let me get my colours back are my favorites songs orderly.. in a nutshell, "Journey Through the Hidden Gardens" is DISPERSE debut album and I think in the next few years they will carpe diem and climb the ladder rapidly?

Disperse, young yet professional band from Poland, country of beautiful forests and unfinished motorways. Despite that, their musical technique is very impressive. Is it neo-prog or prog metal? People are divided on the issue. My personal opinion is as follows: it's a neo prog metal music - full of keyboards, small bells and other... things, but with participation of distortion guitar and metal riffs as well.

Now, since I established the facts, I'll try to pick some interesting features out of this release. First of all it is quite well produced, some tones are not balanced but overall impression is good. There are also some very interesting ideas and haunting melodies (unfortunately many annoying and trite too... well, it's normal for neo prog). The band tries to experiment with rhythm and complex composition which is admirable. However, lack of musical intuition often condemns this experiments to be overdone. Despite their young age, the musicians manage to create very consistent album with well-defined concept, but as a whole, JOURNEY THROUGH THE HIDDEN GARDENS is rather exhausting experience. Excessive abundance of sounds, synths and... in fact everything, is overwhelming. I prefer listening to it in fragments. You see? I don't even know when I've begun with criticism.

But seriously, this band has great potential and their debut is actually a decent record. The singer is quite talented guy with nice, strong voice and the guitarist is a guitar hero under the influence of such virtuosos as Steve Vai and John Petrucci. Therefore, if you are a fan of awe-inspiring guitar and rhythmical twists and turns and you enjoy rich neo-proggy musical landscapes, this album is for you.

"Balance Of Creators" opens with atmosphere as the music and vocals kick in at 1 1/2 minutes.The tempo then picks up with some aggressive guitar before it settles back. "Reflection Of A Dying World" builds then it kicks in. It settles with spoken vocals 1 1/2 minutes in.The tempo continues to shift. Some instrumental bombast then the vocals return. "Entering Newlands" opens with drums and atmosphere before kicking in. Vocals after a minute. Atmosphere after 3 1/2 minutes as it settles followed by a tasteful guitar solo. Vocals before 5 minutes as the tempo picks up.

"On The Windows Of A Dove" features keyboards as almost spoken vocals and guitar take over. I like when the vocals get more passionate. Some nice guitar before 2 1/2 minutes. "Let Me Get My Colours Back" opens with atmosphere as it builds. Reserved vocals before 1 1/2 minutes as it settles.Vocals and sound do get fuller. It settles back with some good guitar. "Far Away" again contrasts the the lighter and fuller sounds. As do the next two tracks.The closer "Circles Complete" is a mellow track throughout really with reserved vocals.

A definite disappointment for me. Barely 3 stars.

At their best, they bring very atmospheric heavy prog soliciting for the love of Marillion, Pink Floyd, Anathema and possibly also Porcupine Tree fans. Also the British modern neo-prog of Frost* comes to mind. Great examples are the two opening tracks, which feature epic song writing and pleasant vocal melodies.

Entering Newlands is the first of 4 songs that show the band's roots in neo-prog, resulting in a fairly old-school and commercial sound. With Let Me Get My Colours Back and the touching ballad Far Away the quality gradually improves again till it reaches the level of the opening songs on Above Clouds and Spirit of Age.

Journey Through the Hidden Gardens is not always highly original material but it's a very competent and well-crafted album of a talented young band. Disperse seem to feel especially at ease on the lengthier epic material, which is very promising! A pleasant listen. 3.5 stars

PS: the band streams their album at www.myspace.com/disperseband