STILL THE WATERS

As most know Epignosis (Robert) is a card carrying member of Prog Archives, and a guy who has completely different tastes in music than I do (haha). We "agree to disagree" but to give an example he's given 1 or 2 stars to three albums that are in my top five of 2009, and i've rated them all 5 stars. He loves KANSAS, i'm not a fan at all. So you can imagine my surprise to find out Robert has made an album here ("Still The Waters") that suits my tastes. I've heard a lot of Christian based music over the years, and while the lyrics here aren't anything new, the sound for that genre of music is. What we get is a melancholic mood throughout with lots of mellotron. Even the vocals are laid back and reserved. There are issues with this recording, the mix could be better and so could the vocals. And we get a lot of samples instead of the real thing, but this is all a product of EPIGNOSIS not being signed to a label and doing it on his own. I think Robert has done a fine job all things considered. Now to the music.

"Still The Waters" builds until we get some raw sounding guitar around a minute. Vocals and gentle guitar follow. Drums take over followed by synths after 3 minutes. I'm reminded of PORCUPINE TREE before 4 minutes. Nice. That raw guitar is back after 5 minutes and vocals a minute later. Synths after 8 1/2 minutes. A good start. "A Pearl In The Field" opens with mellotron as bass and drums join in. Synths and guitar follow. Then we get strummed guitar and bass only as the vocals join in. Electric guitar after 3 minutes. Acoustic guitar and keys a minute later. Vocals and mellotron 5 1/2 minutes in before the electric guitar returns 6 minutes in and again a minute later to end it. Vocals come in quickly on "Move" as guitar then growly bass joins in. Mellotron around a minute. Drums eventually arrive. A calm after 4 1/2 minutes before it kicks back in a minute later with chunky bass, drums and keyboards. Guitar after 6 1/2 minutes.Vocals and that earlier sound are back before 8 minutes.

"An Everlasting Kingdom" has some acoustic guitar to open before it settles to an almost spacey soundscape after a minute. Vocals and drums before 2 minutes.The drums don't sound right here. It settles again after 5 minutes and turns spacey then kicks back in before 6 minutes. I like the guitar but not the drums here. Organ after 7 1/2 minutes then it settles with piano as guitar and drums join in. "No Shadow Of Turning" is my favourite by far. And not because it's the longest track at 20 minutes either. Some atmosphere to open and the mellotron sounds so good here. Growly bass and guitar come and go. Vocals before 3 1/2 minutes. More mellotron after 4 minutes. Great sound before 6 1/2 minutes. How good is this after 7 1/2 minutes when the vocals return with some heaviness. This is so good. Check out the sound after 13 1/2 minutes. It's so uplifting. A calm with vocals before 16 minutes. It's heavier (nice bass) again but retrained. Guitar 18 1/2 minutes in. This is one of the best songs that i've heard in 2009. I'd love to hear this done in a studio with a cast of musicians helping out. Regardless this is an excellent addition to my collection. Great job Robert !

Edit : It's been a couple of months and I always re-visit those albums that I consider low 4 star records. Sometimes I feel the rating I originally gave was right on, other times I drop it. I don't usually give an explanation like this but because it's Robert a member of our site I feel it's the right thing to do. When I first listened to this album back in December I must admit that I thought that 3 stars would be a generous rating, but it grew on me and the poor vocals seemed not too bad after a while. Besides the last track is fantastic. But to go back an re-listen a couple of more times makes me realize 3 stars is the right rating for me. I'm glad I own it but there are too many issues that I know aren't Robert's fault. 3.5 stars.