ECHOLYN

Legendary U.S. Symphonic Prog band Echolyn has emerged after a ten-year absence with not one, but two new albums, their 10th and 11th (released not as a double album, but 2 separate albums), returning with their unique rockin' prog sound, mixing classic melodic rock and power pop with sumptuous symphonic prog for a wonderful set of albums. TSRii consists of 2 epic-length tracks (16 and 29 min.), whereas TSRvii has 7 shorter tracks (that's where the titles come from). The two lengthy tracks ebb and flow and take their time to develop through multiple musical sections and themes, but never lose focus, remaining consistently enjoyable and entertaining throughout their musical journeys. I prefer TSRVII over this disc, but this is still quite wonderful prog. It is just not quite as consistently brilliant throughout as the other disc is. Echolyn's music may have many varied influences throughout, but yet they have created their own unique style, as they don't sound quite like anyone else. I'm not all that familiar with the band's earlier catalog, but I really like these 2 albums, and will be returning to them often throughout the year. Best Tracks: Water in Our Hands. Rating: 4.0

Legendary U.S. Symphonic Prog band Echolyn has emerged after a ten-year absence with not one, but two new albums, their 10th and 11th (released not as a double album, but 2 separate albums), returning with their unique rockin' prog sound, mixing classic melodic rock and power pop with sumptuous symphonic prog for a wonderful set of albums. TSRvii has 7 shorter tracks (that's where the titles come from), and is the better of the two albums, as the songs are brighter, punchier, with more emphasis on melody and catchy rock tunes, but still with plenty of proggy goodness throughout, with great vocals, instrumental passages and arrangements. All the tracks are great (but my faves are listed below). Echolyn's music may have many varied influences throughout, but yet they have created their own unique style, as they don't sound quite like anyone else. I'm not all that familiar with the band's earlier catalog, but I love this album, and will be returning to it often throughout the year. Best Tracks: Tiny Star, On We Blur, Boulder on Hills, Radio Waves, Cul-de-Sacs and Tunnels. Rating: 4.5

The Tool's of Echolyn

Echolyn has been one of my favorite bands since their early days, with albums like Echolyn (1991), Suffocating the Bloom (1992), As the World (1995), and Mei (2002). They have a fascinating discography, but after Mei, and speaking objectively, the band started to lose what made them interesting. The music became boring, lost its charm, its dissonance, its madness?it became bourgeois in sound, in the best sense of the word.

Then came The End Is Beautiful (2005), which had some flashes of brilliance, and their self-titled album in 2012, which starts off devastatingly strong but then fades away, returning to the same patterns without truly transcending.

At the end of 2024, I received an email informing me that Echolyn would be releasing two albums in March of this year: Time Silent Radio II and Time Silent Radio VII. This news sparked a lot of anticipation. To make the release more appealing, the band offered several options, including green purchases with downloads, special prices, and limited editions. Finally, the release arrived. The first thing I heard was Time Silent Radio II.

And here is the review. The truth is, the album generates more expectation than it actually delivers. I think the band's mistake was in creating such high expectations in the first place.

The album consists of two long tracks and runs for almost 50 minutes. It moves through different atmospheres and sounds, gradually building up flashes of intensity and power. I've never fully grasped the concept behind it, but the music envelops you and takes you places. The first track, Time Has No Place, is incredible, evolving in an excellent way. Something similar happens with the second track?the band knows how to jam and play. The music is exceptional and perhaps the best thing Echolyn has done since The End Is Beautiful. Personally, I enjoyed it a lot. All the elements that make us love this band are here.

While it's a great album, it can't be considered a masterpiece?but it is an excellent record, made with dedication and passion. Echolyn reminds me of a band like Tool in the way they build expectations around every release, but in the end, it's just another record.

The Tool's in Echolyn

Echolyn has been one of my favorite bands since their early days, with albums like Echolyn (1991), Suffocating the Bloom (1992), As the World (1995), and Mei (2002). They have a fascinating discography, but after Mei, speaking objectively, the band started to lose what made them interesting. The music became boring, lost its charm, its dissonance, its madness?it became bourgeois in sound, in the best sense of the word.

Then came The End Is Beautiful (2005), which had some flashes of brilliance, and their self-titled album in 2012, which starts off devastatingly strong but then fades away, returning to the same patterns without truly transcending.

At the end of 2024, I received an email informing me that Echolyn would be releasing two albums in March of this year: Time Silent Radio II and Time Silent Radio VII. This news sparked a lot of anticipation. To make the release more appealing, the band offered several options, including "green purchases" with downloads, special prices, and limited editions. Finally, the release arrived. I think Echolyn made two records?one more progressive and the other more commercially oriented.

Echolyn's earlier work had a youthful energy and a more immediate impact, while their recent material leans heavily into introspection and intricate composition. Some might find that this shift has made their music less urgent or engaging.

It's not necessarily a case of declining musicianship?their technical skills and songwriting depth are still there?but the spark that made their earlier albums feel fresh and adventurous might not hit the same way anymore. If you feel they've aged badly, it could be because their approach now feels too careful or lacks the raw emotion and drive they once had.

In the end, this record feels inferior. If you look at it or listen to it, you have to like or dislike something immediately. But Echolyn is still a very original band, and this is a more mature album?one that reflects a time when people listened to the radio and didn't have social media. It's a slow album, but if you give it time, it will eventually pull you in.

So close. Echolyn delivers an album consisting of only two tracks, which excites me as I enjoy when a band lets loose and dedicates itself to developing its music over a long period. However, the main issue with the album becomes apparent right away: the music doesn't develop much. I keep waiting for the band to do something unexpected, to wake me up or take the music in new directions. But it doesn't happen.

Don't get me wrong, the music is great; I enjoy the melodies and the vocals. But there's a limit to how many times you can hear the same verse or riff. When you take a song that should be a maximum of ten minutes and stretch it to over 16 minutes without allowing it to develop, it becomes close to boring. The second track, "Water in our hands," has a first ten-minute period where I want to turn it off every time I listen because they repeat the same music and riff for too long. Just after ten minutes, they make a change and move in a different direction, but it's a period of music that should have been a maximum of five minutes.

There's a lot of good on this album, but to make it better, they needed to shorten each track by at least 30%, or make changes in the songs to break up the music or introduce something unexpected to keep me engaged. Here, it barely happens, and the music chugs along at a similar tempo and in a similar style. The production is brilliant, the music is fantastic, and the band has never sounded better. But it's too drawn out for me to handle. So close to being fantastic, but it doesn't work when I feel like I want to fast-forward the music. Making long tracks requires a special group, and few can do it well. Echolyn is close but doesn't quite get there this time.

Early thoughts....subject to editing

Echolyn is a band I have long struggled with. Are they really progressive? Yes, on the face of it but there is such a strong focus on songwriting that, for me, it ceases to be progressive except in a neo sense. I've always felt they were too weighty on the vocals and had a certain self-indulgence that was off-putting lyrically and vocally. Yet, there were certainly flashes of brilliance. The Fountainhead for instance, opening track of their 1st album, is epic and timeless for me. An all-time great track.

Regarding this new release, I am still absorbing it as it is a lot. On first blush, that length seems wholly unjustified. Just tighten everything up and make it a single album, I say. It loses distinction in its length. I also find it wearying in its conscious effort to create "hooks". Are they trying to write hits? Certainly the production is A+ for the most part and it seems radio-friendly. But just considering it on its musical value I find it confusing though fairly compelling most of the time. Clearly my struggles with this band continue. I want to like it. There are plenty of things I dig but they often become meaningless in short order.

You can't have your foot in both worlds. Echolyn is a band that seems to be facing backwards while trudging forward.

Extremely listenable. Great as what I call "Progzak"...stuff that sounds good but with little that is going to grab my attention away from bill paying, bookkeeping, etc...Don't get me wrong. I kind of like my "progzak" playlist as it crackles with proggy vibes and ideas , which is great as background. But, when I attend to it it bores me to revulsion. Strange how that works.

There is a lot of Progzak out there these days. All the nauseating Neo stuff is everywhere. Echolyn is better than most of that and the general arranging skills are quite good if not groundbreaking.

I give it 5 stars for its sound and production. Honestly, I'm on the fence between 3 or 4 stars musically. It's a solid 3 with lots of 4 star splashes, shall we say!

For fairly obvious reasons, the first two paragraphs of this review are the same as for another Echolyn release, but it does change from there on, honest! In March 2025 Echolyn released (or releases, depending when you read this) two new albums on the same day, this one, and the companion album, 'Time Silent Radio vii'. This contains just two long tracks while the other contains seven shorter ones, and the band have also made available artwork which combines both releases so if one wishes to keep them listed as one double album then it is easy to do so. I first came across Echolyn many years ago when they released their third album, 'As The World' in 1995. This was their first (and last) release to a major label as they were signed to Sony for a period, but after more than 250 live shows, three full length albums and one EP the band broke up.

The band have reformed and gone on hiatus a few times since then, but the first reformation in 2000 saw founders Brett Kull, Christopher Buzby and Ray Weston get back together, this time with drummers Jordan Perlson and Paul Ramsey. There have been five albums since 2000, with slight changes in line-up, but Brett, Chris and Ray have been the constants and now they are back with their first releases since 2015's 'I Heard You Were Listening', since when there has been another line-up change with Brett Kull (guitar, lead vocals, backing vocals), Ray Weston (lead vocals, bass, backing vocals), Chris Buzby (keyboards, backing vocals) welcoming back Jordan Perlson (drums & percussion, backing vocals).

The two songs are "Time Has No Place" (16:37), which is broken into four parts, and "Water in Our Hands, Pts. 1-4" (28:51). Playing this album straight after the other one it is interesting to see the similarities and also the differences, as the pop mentalities are again prevalent (The Beatles being an obvious influence), but there is also the impression that the guys are more relaxed. There is a famous quote from Blaise Pascal (often wrongly attributed to Twain and others), "I have made this longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter." Here they have been able to expand on ideas which would have necessarily needed to be curtailed if they were going to reduce the length, but at the same time they have not extended songs needlessly. There are plenty of bands out there who could do with some judicious editing on some of their releases, The Flower Kings spring to mind, yet here there is a relevance and continuity which takes the listener along for the journey.

All the styles we hear on 'Time Silent Radio vii' are again present but somehow are just "more". It makes it very difficult indeed to pick a favourite of the two as they are so close yet also separate, and I can certainly understand why the band made the sensible decision to make them available as separate albums as opposed to one lengthy one. Personally, whichever of the two I am listening to is my favourite, with its combination of wonderful musicianship, vocals and melodies, so currently it is this one but at the back of my head is the niggle that I really enjoyed the other one as well. The only solution for progheads is to investigate both: you will not be disappointed.

For fairly obvious reasons, the first two paragraphs of this review are the same as for another Echolyn release, but it does change from there on, honest! In March 2025 Echolyn released (or releases, depending when you read this) two new albums on the same day. This one, and the companion album, 'Time Silent Radio II'. That contains just two long tracks while this contains seven shorter ones, and the band have also made available artwork which combines both releases so if one wishes to keep them listed as one double album then it is easy to do so. I first came across Echolyn many years ago when they released their third album, 'As The World' in 1995. This was their first (and last) release to a major label as they were signed to Sony for a period, but after more than 250 live shows, three full length albums and one EP the band broke up.

The band have reformed and gone on hiatus a few times since then, but the first reformation in 2000 saw founders Brett Kull, Christopher Buzby and Ray Weston get back together, this time with drummers Jordan Perlson and Paul Ramsey. There have been five albums since 2000, with slight changes in line-up, but Brett, Chris and Ray have been the constants and now they are back with their first releases since 2015's 'I Heard You Were Listening', since when there has been another line-up change with Brett Kull (guitar, lead vocals, backing vocals), Ray Weston (lead vocals, bass, backing vocals), Chris Buzby (keyboards, backing vocals) welcoming back Jordan Perlson (drums & percussion, backing vocals).

When I reviewed 'As The World' some 30 years ago, I noted it had been licensed to Cyclops Records in the UK, and although at the time no-one else had reviewed it, it was already the label's biggest seller (this is pre-internet remember, when everything was word of mouth and fanzines). I ended the review by saying Echolyn were a superb band, and it was a brilliant album, and I am glad to say that all these years later I am still saying the same thing. The longest song on this album is 8:29, and the guys have concentrated on melody which moves them more into crossover than symphonic, with vocals front and centre and a heavy usage of harmonies. There are times when I am reminded of classic ELO, and in an ideal world the lush "Cul-de-Sacs and Tunnels" would be a hit single. There is so much to love here from fretless bass to toms in the background, stunning vocals, the underlying piano holding it all together, the guitar providing just the right amount of cut through, the large number of hooks and singalong quality and the way they drop in different sounds and styles at just the right point. It may be less than eight minutes long, but it feels like a pop epic.

By deliberately restricting themselves to shorter lengths ("Silent Years" is only 4:31) they have concentrated on melody, and have somehow crammed a great deal into the arrangements without them ever feeling cluttered and over the top as somehow there is still plenty of space and freshness which makes the listener wanting to come back for more. This album has reminded me of why I loved them so much back in the day, and one can only hope they don't take nine years to release the next album, although it could be argued I am being greedy as there is already another new one to listen to, but hey, if you don't ask you don't get! They may be an "old" band who predate the resurgence in progressive rock, but this album is exciting and vital, with nods to AOR and pop but always with prog at its heart and soul and is a delight from beginning to end.

Echolyn's new album pair, Time Silent Radio vii & II, is a magnificent work of art. In particular, the two epics that fill TSR II, "Time Has No Place" and "Water in Our Hands," are mind-bendingly good.

The new songs feel less aggressive than 2002's Mei or 2005's The End Is Beautiful, leaning instead toward the broader sonic range of 2012's eponymous double and 2015's I Heard You Listening -- while, in this listener's opinion, also tapping into the grand ambition and versatility that informed such earlier works as 1995's classic As the World. Yet mere comparison to past work is unfair, because what's on offer here is not derivative but rather fresh and inspired. And the overall sound itself is gorgeous.

Even after more than 30 intermittent years together, the wizards of Echolyn are creating some of their most passionate, intricate, and enjoyable music right now with this melodic masterpiece.

I've loved Echolyn's music for many years, but their later albums have been a bit hit and miss. I didn't really like 'I Heard you Listening' so I signed up to the Kickstarter campaign with a bit of trepidation, but I figured that, regardless of the likeability of the music, it's supporting a great and creative band anyway.

I have found the two Time Silent Radio albums quite hard to get into; I have listened to them many times since they dropped on 1 January. They didn't immediately land, but as I have listened over the past couple of weeks, they have grown on me. It's complex music with many parts. 'Water in our Hands' for example is a bit like 'Mei' (which I have also struggled to like). However, I think that Echolyn is like the classical music of Prog Rock in that repeated listening reveals more and more genius writing and playing. It's taken a while for the melodies to land where I can find myself recalling them without listening to the music itself, but it's getting there - they are taking hold.

I think this is actually a good thing because when you like something immediately, perhaps it's not the deep and may even get boring with repeated listening - this is not the case with this music. There's plenty to savour here and repeated listening is more and more rewarding. The beauty of the music becomes more powerful and moving with greater familiarity.

I now think that these two albums are wonderful. I originally gave these albums a three star rating, but as I've been listening, I have increased the rating and I now feel this is among the best of their work. 4.5 stars.

Echolyn's nine-year hiatus has not diminished them in any way. Maybe a few of us wondered if we would ever get more music, but now it's here I'm very happy to say, 'thank you Echolyn, welcome back, you've been missed and thank you for the wonderful new music.'