THE COLD LIGHT OF DARKNESS

I know we, and then especially the prog reviewers, are not allowed to refer to other reviews and reviewers basically because you have to write your own thing and that has nothing to do with what the others are saying about it. I usually stick to the rule and I agree with it but this time I will have to write a little story about it because this is too interesting to ignore. It's a story of 4 prog reviewers (actually 4,5 but we'll leave Chessman out of it) who have been reviewing the two albums by Tr3nity. Two of them (hdfisch and Zowieziggy) gave two stars in both occasions and two others (Tarcisio Maura and yours truly) gave 4 stars for the same albums. And because one of the reasons the prog reviewers are here on this site and the main job they do is to inform readers and visitors about the quality and significance of the bands and albums, this is actually becoming an interesting situation. For if you are a visitor and read these 8 reviews what will have to be your decision ? I mean, four 4 star reviews and four 2 star opinions will leave such a visitor puzzled. I will explain in this review how this all is possible.

Tr3nity happens to be a typical neo progressive band and we all know by now that a band like that is not everybody's favourite ball game so to speak. And that's in a nut shell what the whole thing is about. Those who happen to know more of my reviews will know by now that I'm a true neo progfan and I honestly believe Tr3nity is a high class act in this subgenre. Well, also mr Chessman doesn't hate neo prog and not even mr Zowieziggy so I have to admit I'm quite surprised they disqualify albums by Tr3nity. Am I being too generous with this English band ? I can answer this with a resolute NO ! The only thing I am willing to admit to the 2 starraters is that both albums are no masterpieces and also that Tr3nity is not the very best neo band in history. But still, they are very skilled and they can write great compositions. And if you read the 2 star reviews there is no denial about these facts, even with them. Their major problem with Tr3nity is the lack of originality and significance for prog history. I keep saying: if those are the criterions, we can stop reviewing half of the bands on PA because most of the 4000 bands are not really original and are usually inspired by predecessors.

Now some things about the album: If I compare this debut to the successor I must say this one is more versatile than Precious Seconds. And this is not necessarily a positive thing. I like PS all along, think it's a very consistent album on a high level. This debut on the other hand is an album with two "faces"'. The first half of the album is truly great and even magnificent. The two epical tracks are brilliant with a significant remark about Which Way that appears an odd song for Tr3nity because it's very jazzy whilst all their other songs (incl Precious Seconds) are symphonical neoprog. Another brilliant song amongst the first 4 is the almost 10 minute track Into the Dark. This song is equal to the first epic, Eyes of a Child, a song with a good first vocal part followed by tremendous instrumental stuff in the second half of the songs by both keyboards and guitar. Tr3nity is absolutely excellent with these kind of songs.

On the other hand there's also the second half of the album (The Exposure Suite as they call it) that is slightly disappointing to me. It consists of mainly shorter, ballad like songs, and I have to say this is not the best feature of Tr3nity.

But the first 4 tracks are that great that it's not possible for me anymore to ruin the rating and I think that's also fair because measured in time we are talking of 2/3 of the album.