A SENSE OF CHANGE

This arguably progressive metal album sounds a bit like the Rush's "Show don't tell" track of the Presto album. The rhythmic guitar even sounds a bit like the ones on the Moving Pictures album. There is however a slight nuance regarding the guitar sound: it also has some resemblances with Allan Holdsworth's solos and discrete notes, and with Andy Summers' discrete rhythmic sound like on the Police's "Driven to tears" or "Message in a bottle" songs. The music is very clean and disciplined, and it sounds more progressive "hard art rock" than progressive metal, including many sudden breaks and rhythm changes. There are very rare keyboards arrangements, and I must admit that the 3 instruments involved, i.e. the drums, the bass and the guitars are very refined and well played. There are some excellent acoustic guitar parts, and the lead vocals are very good, reminding the French Canadian singer of the Zebulon rock band. The track "Change of season" does not follow the overall genre of the album: it contains not bass, no drums, no electric guitars: it is a very relaxing classical-oriented song made of refined acoustic guitars and string arrangements. The description of this record is not complete without saying that some modern fusion elements are present in most of the tracks.

Rating: 4.5 stars