The Raven That Refused to Sing

Looks like the competition for best track of 2013 is already over, and it's only early February. I find it just about impossible to believe that anything better than the title track of Steven Wilson's forthcoming third solo album The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories) could be released later this same year. To go one step further, it even seems unlikely that anything better could be released during the entire decade.

The British Wilson (born 1967) has so far been best known as the frontman of progressive rock group Porcupine Tree but has composed and performed outstanding music also in several other groups / projects, such as Blackfield (with acclaimed israeli musician Aviv Geffen), No-Man (with British singer Tim Bowness), Bass Communion, and most recently Storm Corrosion (with Swedish heavy metal cult favourite Mikael Åkerfeldt).

Nearly all of Wilson's projects have succeeded in producing unforgettable music. I will add a list of recommendations to the end of this story. But his most amazing masterwork is now to be released as a part of his solo career, which began as late as 2008, and apparently gathered speed following the crash landing of Porcupine Tree's The Incident (2009) - one of the weakest, silliest albums of the group's entire career.

Porcupine Tree has not made any recordings since. Wilson has implied that, while he thought The Incident was a satisfactory album (I couldn't disagree more), he felt he no longer knew what direction to take next with that group. This resulted in a hiatus that has been going on ever since. Wilson has concentrated on his solo career and even though Blackfield released a new album in 2011, it felt like Geffen using the name but doing the majority of work himself.

Wilson's first solo album Insurgentes (2008) was already a way better than average prog album. It contained many outstanding tracks and at least one instant classic called Get All You Deserve which I have always felt would already be hailed as a prog masterpiece had it been recorded in the 1970's and released by King Crimson.

Strange as it may sound, Wilson's best solo work before this year's masterpiece was released a year later as a B side of a single. The opening track of Insurgentes called Harmony Korine - a perfectly fine prog rock song in itself - was then coupled with a hard rock prog masterpiece called The 78 which had already been made previously available as an untitled last track of the second disc of Insurgentes' de luxe version. Strangely hidden, this brilliant rock song presented a high point of Wilson's output for myself at the time. Check out the video below.



Wilson's second solo album Grace for Drowning (2011) did contain some high points yet always felt slightly disappointing. There were really no standout tracks, and it is very fitting that the album's long centerpiece Raider II (23 mins. 21 secs.) is considerably less interesting than its genuinely atmospheric prelude (2 mins. 23 secs.). The album felt so hermetically sealed that it probably wasn't too accessible to anyone else but its maker.

Which brings us to The Raven That Refused to Sing (And Other Stories). The album's official release date is still more than two weeks away, and yet I have already heard four of its six tracks. They are joined together by their supernatural theme, yet sound wildly varied in terms of musical style. Of the first three tracks, the opening Luminol as well as the third one The Holy Drinker sound very experimental, the latter even displaying jazz influences.

The second track Drive Home sounds most like what Wilson has been doing before: it would fit perfectly in Insurgentes and is considerably more melody driven than the other two. But the real standout is the closing track number 6: The Raven That Refused to Sing, which I believe is one of the most perfect pieces of music composed and performed during the last 100 years. To make the experience even more memorable, it was released two days ago as a breathtakingly stunning music video which you can see and hear below.



First, I watched the video twice, in awe. The first time, I was doing some work on my other computer at the same time, so I didn't fully concentrate yet felt that what I had heard was an undeniable masterpiece. The second time, I was fully concentrated. The third time, which was earlier today, I didn't watch the video at all but only listened to the music. And the unexpected happened: during the last two minutes of the song, I started to cry. I couldn't help it: the music was just so beautiful and perfect.

This is not something that happens to me often. In fact, it hardly ever happens. While I appreciate exceptional musicianship, I have a heart of stone and don't usually get this moved by music. To me, this means that Wilson has created something well and truly exceptional that I can really, really connect to. To ascertain this, I listened to the song for the fifth time prior to starting writing this, and you know what, the same thing happened again.

The Raven That Refused to Sing is an exceptionally beautiful piece of music; shortly put, a masterpiece. The video above should be recognized as the best short animation in next year's Oscars. And yes, I think that, in spite of Steven Wilson's awesome track record, it is the best thing he has ever accomplished.

Sing to me, raven
I miss her so much
Sing to me, Lily
I miss you so much

Other Steven Wilson recommendations:
No-Man: Soft Shoulders (Flowermouth, 1994)
Porcupine Tree: The Sky Moves Sideways, Phase 1 (The Sky Moves Sideways, 1995)
Porcupine Tree: A Smart Kid (Stupid Dream, 1999)
Porcupine Tree: Stop Swimming (Stupid Dream, 1999)
Porcupine Tree: Gravity Eyelids (In Absentia, 2002)
Porcupine Tree: Heart Attack in a Lay By (In Absentia, 2002)
Porcupine Tree: Collapse the Light into Earth (In Absentia, 2002)
No-Man: All the Blue Changes (Together We're Stranger, 2003)
No-Man: Photographs in Black and White (Together We're Stranger, 2003)
Blackfield: Pain (Blackfield, 2004)
Blackfield: Perfect World (Blackfield, 2004)
Blackfield: Where is My Love? (Blackfield, 2004)
Porcupine Tree: Deadwing (Deadwing, 2005)
Blackfield: Once (Blackfield II, 2007)
Blackfield: 1000 People (Blackfield II, 2007)
Porcupine Tree: Fear of a Blank Planet (Fear of a Blank Planet, 2007)
No-Man: All Sweet Things (Schoolyard Ghosts, 2008)
No-Man: Truenorth (Schoolyard Ghosts, 2008)
Steven Wilson: Significant Other (Insurgentes, 2008)
Steven Wilson: Get All You Deserve (Insurgentes, 2008)
Steven Wilson: The 78 (Insurgentes De Luxe Edition, 2009)
Blackfield: Dissolving With the Night (Welcome to My DNA, 2011)
Storm Corrosion: Drag Ropes (Storm Corrosion, 2012)

Best of 2012, part 3

It is now New Year's Eve and time to complete the top 10 of 2012. Here is the upper half of that list.

5. American Hollow: Last Dream Before Dawn
(Album: Screaming into the Void)

We continue our American tour with American Hollow, a group from Salt Lake City that formed only four years ago and released their debut album Whisper Campaign in 2010. The prog metal album sounded more than just a little monotonous to me, but this year's new EP Screaming into the Void contains much more varied styles and moods. The second track of the EP, Last Dream Before Dawn even reminds me of Blackfield's best, most melodic output. The song cannot be found in YouTube, but here are links to both Spotify and, for those who don't use that service, also to the group's web page:



American Hollow - Last Dream Before Dawn (web page link)

4. Echolyn: Locust to Bethlehem
(Album: Echolyn)

Our American tour concludes in Pennsylvania, at Echolyn headquarters. Their excellent, self-titled new album was released in June and contains several highlights, one of which is this beautiful song. At its beginning, the guitar and drums give the listener a nice set of false expectations. What begins sounding like a mellow blues rock track, builds up to a memorable art rock piece with big sounds and even string arrangements to boot. Unfortunately, I cannot find the entire track anywhere to link here, but there is a 90-second sample in iTunes (link to Finnish iTunes below, change to your home country if you live elsewhere) and under it, there is also a short YouTube snippet from the recording session of the song's string sequences.

90-second sample in iTunes



3. Muse: Save Me
(Album: The 2nd Law)

One of the year's most pleasant surprises was the British art rock band Muse, whose latest album The 2nd Law contained a couple of truly exceptional highlights. The real pinnacle is Save Me, which achieves perfection in the melody-driven guitar rock/pop genre. It is the highest ranking, shall we say regular piece of music on the list before we ascend to new heights. The best two tracks are Art with a capital A, music that will hopefully be remembered for decades to come. This is not to say the Muse's achievement isn't absolutely  great as well, its greatness is just slightly different.



2. Sigur Rós: Valtari
(Album: Valtari)

The Icelandic art rock group Sigur Rós is the only artist to appear twice in the top 10. Their new album's title track is a lengthy ambient instrumental that contains immense power. Rarely has a composition so perfectly reflected the cover of the album it is taken from. The desolate, somehow arctic looking seascape tinged in filthy green and slightly out of focus is the kind of an image that the cold sounding, yet unbelievably beautiful melody brings to mind. Most of its running time, Valtari just runs rings around itself - not attempting to go anywhere, but enjoying its staying power instead. Valtari is one of those rare recordings in popular music that elevates from mere entertainment to an artistic work of the highest calibre.



1. Storm Corrosion: Drag Ropes
(Album: Storm Corrosion)

Anticipating a heavy prog metal album and then hearing this as its opening track was one of those all too infrequent moments that are the artistic equivalent of being hit on the head with a large wooden board. When hearing it, I was under the mistaken impression that Steven Wilson's creativity had not been peaking recently, which made hearing this unbelievable masterpiece all the more surprising. Wish I were surprised like this more often. The 9 minute, 47 second song is very close to my 10-minute maximum limit and represents a musical style that is really difficult to pin down. And just look at this beautiful video that has been made to support the song and its message. Incredible. Year's best in every way.



Like I wrote in the first part of this story, my favourite long (over 10-minute) song or composition of 2012 is Speaking in Lampblack by Echolyn. Let's embed it below as well, for comparison, as it happens to be available in YouTube. Paradoxically, at 10 minutes and 45 seconds it is only 58 seconds longer than Drag Ropes, yet gets classified as a longer work due to the 10-minute limit having been crossed. Check out both, and you will have listened to 20 minutes of very best music released this year.



It should be fairly obvious, based on these lists, that my favourite artists this year have been 1. Echolyn, 2. Storm Corrosion, and 3. Sigur Rós. I would have to place Echolyn to number one spot, because the level of greatness is most consistent on their album. Storm Corrosion and Sigur Rós are very close to each other in this respect.

There is now also a Spotify playlist available containing as many of the listed songs as possible. Not everything listed here is available in Spotify, so I cannot call it "Best of 2012", let's simply call it "2012 Highlights". It will also contain some songs and compositions that did not quite make it to the list, but which to my mind are also very good and worth a listen.

Best of 2012, part 2

So here we are, with ProgActive's list of the top 10 songs or instrumentals that run under 10 minutes each and have been released during 2012. It might be worthwhile to point out once again that there might be other masterpieces that we have missed but these are the ones we haven't.

The list seems varied in that among the ten, only one artist appears twice and there is music from several different countries. Although the list has been compiled from a prog point of view, it is not a prog list. In fact, the songs that can be classified purely as prog, are clearly in a minority here. But most of the titles listed have at least some kind of prog connection or have been influenced by it. Before moving to Iceland, we begin our tour in the U.K.

10. Anathema: Untouchable, Part 1
(Album: Weather Systems)

While the album Weather Systems was already mentioned as a disappointment in part 1 of this story, there is no denying that its opening track works really well. Melody and instumentation are impeccable, and the overall feel is familar from previous releases like We're Here Because We're Here (2010) and the masterful reworked compilation of older works, Hindsight (2008). If only the rest of the album had been as good as its first track!



9. Sigur Rós: Ég anda
(Album: Valtari)

The new album by the Icelandic group Sigur Rós was this year's biggest surprise. I honestly thought that they had already lost their creativity and didn't pay any attention to the new release when it first came out. Boy, was I wrong! Valtari is easily their second best album ever, following the undying masterpiece that was (  ) (2002). Ég anda is also an opening track and, unlike Anathema's song above, gives promises that the rest of the album is actually able to keep. Below, there is a link to the song accompanied by a strange video.



8. Arcana: Somnolence
(Album: As Bright as a Thousand Suns)

This short, moody, even sombre instrumental piece is also the opening track of the album. It runs just under two minutes but leaves an indelible impression on the listener, and precisely like the previous song on the list, makes promises that the rest of the album can easily keep. Arcana, that initially sounded like a cheaper version of Dead Can Dance, has now fully grown to real artistic merit of their own. I am eagerly waiting for more music like this from Sweden.



7. Motorpsycho: Into the Mystic
(Album: The Death Defying Unicorn)

Having already visited Iceland and Sweden, there is not a long way to check out Norway as well. The fanciful and fairly far-out musical fable called The Death Defying Unicorn by Trondheim's best known group Motorpsycho does not begin but ends with this outstanding track that proves one thing: prog is fun! And it sounds like they have had plenty of it when writing and performing this truly excellent piece of music that can leave the listener simply exhausted with pure joy.



6. OSI: Wind Won't Howl
(Album: Fire Make Thunder)

Now is the time to move to the United States, for the first but not the last time on the list. OSI is the prog metal group originally formed by Fates Warning guitarist Jim Matheos and the original keyboardist of Dream Theater, Kevin Moore, also of Chroma Key fame. On their fourth album Fire Make Thunder, drums are played by Porcupine Tree's Gavin Harrison. Expectations were high following the outstanding previous studio album Blood (2009) but the overall end result turned out to be disappointingly mediocre. Except for this one great song, for which there is no full recording available either in YouTube or Spotify. But you can check out a 35-second sample below: Wind Won't Howl plays between 2:23 and 2:58.



The remaining best five tracks of the top 10 will turn up here tomorrow!

Best of 2012, part 1

2012 is coming to an end, so what better time than right now to wrap up its music offerings and create yet another "best of" list which I'm sure the world is not lacking this time of year. While writing this, I am fully aware of the futility of such an effort: there's no way I have even heard all of the year's most significant songs and compositions. I am likely to discover many of them later. So the top 10 that follows cannot really be the final word on 2012 - only a list of the most impressive songs I have heard so far. Yet this is not to belittle the list, or say it has no significance: I have heard some pretty amazing pieces of music this year already.

Sigur Rós: Valtari

Before going any further, let's make one thing absolutely clear. Even though the name of the blog is ProgActive, what follows is not a collection of best progressive rock albums and songs. There are no genre limitations here. All that matters is the quality of the music, not where it may be pigeonholed. Obviously, I do lean considerably towards prog in my preferences, but am not limited only there.

Before getting to the songs themselves, a few words about the albums of 2012. Here at ProgActive we don't really celebrate them, although in some exceptional cases they may receive honorable mentions. I firmly believe that the way music is collected and listened to has already permanently changed. The album by a single artist or group is really no longer the defining unit when it comes to a collection of music. A playlist is. Even back in the early 1980's when I first started compiling  "year's best" lists (I think my first was in 1981, topped by The Garden by John Foxx), I was more interested in individual tracks than entire albums. There is even more reason for that now that the availability of digital downloads means that purchasing individual songs is more and more common as opposed to buying entire albums - be they in digital or physical format.

OSI: Fire Make Thunder

In spite of that, if we do have a brief look at 2012 albums next, there is one release that can easily be selected above all others. It is in fact the one and only new album I bought this year: the self-titled album by the American symphonic prog group Echolyn which I already reviewed back in August. It is a slightly uneven piece of work, but an impressive one nonetheless.

Many other album releases that I anxiously waited for in advance turned out to be disappointing. Anastasis, the first studio album by Dead Can Dance in 16 years, is one that comes to mind in particular: high expectations that were met by mediocre results. Anastasis is not bad, and it's certainly better than the group's previous two releases: the completely aimless Into the Labyrinth (1993) or the too ethnic for its own good Spiritchaser (1996), but that's all you can say for its defense. On the Dead Can Dance scale, Anastasis is still well below average.

In much the same way, two groups that had shown promise on their earlier releases, Anathema and OSI let me down with their new albums Weather Systems and Fire Make Thunder, respectively. And an even bigger letdown than these two was All the Wars by The Pineapple Thief, on which I failed to find anything truly interesting whatsoever. Considering the group's earlier masterworks, this came as a definite surprise. Compared to it, even Sounds That Can't Be Made by Marillion seemed satisfying: I expected next to nothing and got exactly what I expected.

Anathema: Weather Systems

Of course, 2012 albums included some pleasant surprises as well. Many better works came from artists that I wasn't paying particular attention to beforehand. For example, a year ago I had already more or less forgotten about the Icelandic group Sigur Rós, whose 2008 album with the unpronounceable title had been such a huge disappointment back when it came out that I didn't even bother to listen to their new album Valtari until several months after its release, only to realise that they had made a really, really impressive return to form.

Another album for which I had low expectations to begin with was the debut album of Storm Corrosion. This was due to Steven Wilson's apparent growing interest towards heavy metal. When he decided to collaborate with Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth, I assumed that they would produce some kind of a black prog metal album that would contain a lot of growling vocals and be of little interest to me. As it turned out, I was wrong, and pleasantly surprised. There are no metal riffs at all on Storm Corrosion the album. Instead, it contains some of this year's best musical moments, although it is a noticeably uneven piece of work, just like Echolyn.

One more Swedish artist worth mentioning is the goth / dark ambient group Arcana, whose latest album As Bright as a Thousand Suns was released under my radar, but which I luckily stumbled across a little later and found many good moments contained therein.

Next, we narrow down the scope of the actual top 10 of 2012. As before, I have eliminated really long songs from the list because, at least to me, they seem like an art form of their own. Already in the 1980's, I compiled a separate list for them, drawing the line to 10 minutes. This year, there haven't been too many candidates in the "longer than 10 minutes" category, so it is then Echolyn who dominate that list, with Storm Corrosion a close second.

Echolyn's brilliant Speaking in Lampblack (10 mins. 45 secs.) would be my very first recommendation, closely followed by Island (16 mins. 38 secs.) from the same album. It would be advisable to also check out Storm Corrosion's Ljudet innan (10 mins. 7 secs.) as well as their album's title track (10 mins. 2 secs.). But that's really all the really outstanding long tracks from 2012 I have been able to discover so far.

Following this, we finally move on to the top 10... due to be ready and published right here either tomorrow or, at latest, on Monday, New Year's Eve. Please be sure to come back and check out the finest tracks running under 10 minutes and released during 2012.

Strong recommendation: What Have We Sown? (song) by THE PINEAPPLE THIEF

Album: What We Have Sown
Year: 2007
Country: United Kingdom
Running time: 27 mins. 23 secs.
Spotify link
YouTube link

Back in June, when I was compiling the Top 20 Long Prog Masterpieces list, there was one song in particular that I had a problem with classifying. The song in question was Remember Us (2003), by the British indie rock / prog group The Pineapple Thief. I have already mentioned it earlier, when writing about the album whose closing track it is: Variations on a Dream.

Remember Us is a beautiful, long, even touching song that refers to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. But is it really prog? I wasn't sure of that, so it was very easy to drop it out of the top 20 and think of it as #21. More recently, I have come across another song by the same group that might be close to that same rank: a long prog masterpiece, absolutely, but not quite worthy of the top 20.

The Pineapple Thief's 2007 album What We Have Sown is one of those recordings that I have somehow overlooked for a long time. Once again, thanks go to Spotify. It was only about one month ago that I noticed this album listed there and checked it out. It didn't take long to realise that What We Have Sown is overall one of the group's better efforts.

On top of that, it didn't take long to notice what was easily the most essential track on the album. What Have We Sown? is a long, challenging, constantly evolving song that runs for nearly half an hour. And what a rewarding half hour it is! This is prog at its best: creative, challenging, and unforgiving. What Have We Sown? offers neither an easy entrance nor an effortless way out. This is not a background musical piece. It requires you to really concentrate.

There are prolonged instrumental passages that have an ominous feel to them. The vocal passages are considerably easier on the ear, but they offer only temporary relief. The track opens with individual sounds that are more like sound effects than instrumentals parts of a composition. Overall, the long song fits perfectly the slightly off-kilter, almost supernatural feel of the album cover. It is an example of modern prog art at its very best, and definitely not far outside the Top 20 list of long prog masterpieces of all time.

Very strong recommendation: And Then There Were Three... (album), by GENESIS

Year: 1978
Country: United Kingdom
Spotify link (Entire remastered album)
YouTube link (Entire album)

And now, the gloves come off. I am now going to write something extremely controversial. When I did this same thing before, I was called an idiot. But yes, nevertheless, in my opinion which is not even particularly humble, the 1978 release And Then There Were Three... is the best album Genesis ever made. So there. This, combined with the opinion that Going for the One (1977) is the best Yes album ever, resulted in said insult.

This may not be a very popular opinion among prog fans, and some of them can be, shall we say, slightly fanatic about the correct order of things. But hey, come on, what is the alternative? To call the excruciatingly boring Selling England by the Pound (1973) the pinnacle of the group's output? Like they used to do here, although it has now gone down to third place over there?

Let's discuss And Then There Were Three... and do it properly. At the time, everyone remembered well enough the immensely disappointing departure of Peter Gabriel. He decided not to continue with Genesis in 1975, in the middle of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway tour. And leave he did, upon its completion. As a result of that shock, Genesis spent some time looking for a new lead singer, until they finally decided that Phil Collins was the right choice.

The band continued their recording career. First came the extremely enjoyable A Trick of the Tail, then the slightly weaker but still fully satisfactory Wind and Wuthering (both 1976). It seemed like everything was going to be all right after all. And this is when the bomb dropped. The lead guitarist Steve Hackett decided to leave Genesis as well. And then there were three...

I don't really have a concrete idea what the mood among the remaining three members of Genesis was in the aftermath of Hackett's decision. But it must have been hard. First, the key member and unquestionable leader of the group decides to leave. Then, another member does the same. It must have looked like there was no future for the group.

It is this desperation that must have given Genesis exactly the right frame of mind to write this unbelievable set of songs that they have never surpassed. At this point, it seems that the keyboardist Tony Banks had to assume the leader role within the group, which certainly affected the end result: And Then There Were Three... is a keyboard driven symphonic prog album in much the same way as Danger Money by U.K. was driven by Eddie Jobson's keyboards one year later.

This setup is particularly emphasized by one of the greatest opening tracks ever, Down and Out, where it is Banks's keyboards that drive the track forward and make it memorable along with its extremely peculiar time signature which is more than enough to remind the listener that this is a genuine progressive rock album.

Masterpiece after masterpiece keeps coming. Snowbound is easily the greatest song Mike Rutherford ever composed. Burning Rope is one of the best symphonic prog songs of the decade, along with Down and Out. Possibly The Lady Lies is the only song that outdoes them both, even though at its climax it ashamedly rips off Tony Kaye's piano sequence in A Venture (1971) by Yes. Even the mandatory single hit, very commercial Follow You Follow Me is a genuinely beautiful song that you can't help liking even though it has nothing to do with prog.

The only two tracks that can be considered less than masterful are Ballad of Big, a western story that, while it is a perfectly fine song, fails to really impress; and more importantly, Scenes from a Night's Dream. The only humorous track on the album is its only true failure. Like so many times before, whenever Genesis tries to be funny, they suck. See also Robbery, Assault and Battery; The Return of Giant Hogweed; Lurker etc.

I bought And Then There Were Three... in September 1979, and after repeated listenings, came to the conclusion that it was the best album I had ever heard. This is something I no longer agree with. In hindsight, I think Going for the One by Yes is even better. These two albums from the late 1970's represent everything that I value in music. Both have strong keyboardists and are very melody driven yet not in a straightforward way.

These are the top two albums I can think of. It is therefore all the more surprising that the third album in my personal all time top three was made in the 2000's. I guess I should write about that one next.

For Genesis, this masterful period turned out to be short-lived. Tony Banks handed over the group leading duties to Phil Collins, and we all know how that turned out. Genesis quickly transformed into a meaningless pop group in the vein of Collins' highly successful solo album Face Value (1981). As a result, they wrote one or two pretty good tracks even in the early 1980's but the masterful phase that both began and ended with And Then There Were Three... was forever lost.

By the time Invisible Touch (1986) came out, a genuine music fan no longer knew whether to laugh or cry. Whatever remains of musical genius was left, Collins drove to the ground with his weepy and whiny pop songs that would have better suited someone like Celine Dion to interpret. It is therefore all the more satisfying to think that, before all this happened, the group had a moment of uncertainty and produced at least one masterpiece, before succcumbing to blatant commercialism.

Review: Echolyn (album), by ECHOLYN

Echolyn: Echolyn
USA 2012
Release date: 9 July
Ray Weston - lead and backing vocals
Brett Kull - guitars, lead and backing vocals
Tom Hyatt - bass, backing vocals
Paul Ramsey - drums, percussion, backing vocals
Christopher Buzby - keyboards, backing vocals

1. Island (YouTube link)
2. Headright
3. Locust to Bethlehem
4. Some Memorial
5. Past Gravity (YouTube link)
6. When Sunday Spills
7. Speaking in Lampblack (YouTube link)
8. The Cardinal and I

Pennsylvania's pride Echolyn is generally labeled as a representant of symphonic progressive rock, which is the most common and easily accessible subgenre of prog. Much like before, on their new album they frequently border on regular mellow rock, not sounding much like prog at all. The more challenging sequences, on the other hand, become all the more surprising for this very reason. Echolyn is really not an easy album to access; it is only very good at giving such a false impression.

The group's previous release The End is Beautiful (2005) is already seven years in the past - a longer period of silence, recording-wise, than what was experienced when they broke up in the aftermath of As the World (1995) only to regroup for Cowboy Poems Free (2000). The long period of perfecting new material can be heard: overall, the new album is an improvement on its predecessor.

In comparison with the hard rock influences of The End is Beautiful, the new album gives an impression of serenity, calm and effortlessness. The previous album definitely had its moments as well, but the more mellow soundscape of Echolyn is not only easier on the ear, but also more melody driven.

The real centerpiece of the entire album is its opening track, Island. A brave choice, considering that a potential album buyer might be turned off by it. Island runs nearly 17 minutes and even though it begins with easy enough rock riffs, it soon delves deep into prog territory that might be a turn off for some potential album buyers. Even I wasn't too crazy about the song to begin with, until a few listenings later. Eventually I learned to appreciate the track which clearly is among the very best of the group's output.

The second track Headright is way easier, and also much shorter. In terms of form it is a much more traditional rock song. This also applies to the following track, the infinitely beautiful Locust to Bethlehem, which proves the maturity of Echolyn and I think it might just be my personal number one favourite on the entire album. This is admittedly a close call with track number 7.

Until now, we have been doing really, really well. But following the first three tracks, there is an additional three that, while still pretty good, are nowhere near as convincing. This is not to say that they are not worthy of the group or this album, but to me, they sound like weaker efforts than the previous three. The mellow, easygoing feeling persists but composition-wise, we seem to descend to only average instead of good or great.

The seventh track that saves the day, is the stunning Speaking in Lampblack, my second nominee for the best track on the album. Consisting of several, distinctly different movements that are linked together and running nearly 11 minutes, we are now again in melodic rock territory: easy to access, with only very minor prog influences.

And speaking of those, they make a magnificient return on track 8 which is the closing track of the double album. To begin with, I totally dismissed The Cardinal and I as a somewhat failed experiment of some kind. Hardly a discernible melody and little else of any interest. Boy, was I proven wrong upon repeated listenings! Now, the closing track is one of my definite favourites on the album: a real stress test for anyone's capability to stand progressive rock.

Echolyn shares the same title as the group's debut, released in 1991. This is a somewhat peculiar choice of title, as it is guaranteed to cause confusion between the two recordings. Already, iTunes informs us that the release year of this new album is 1991, and similar mixups will certainly reoccur.

Another strange choice is the decision to release Echolyn as a double album. The first four tracks have been stored on Disc 1 and the remaining four on Disc 2. This wouldn't be strange in itself, had those two separate discs been recorded nearly full. But no, they are both half empty. The entire combined running time of the eight tracks is just under 71 minutes which means that they would have been easy to fit on a single disc.

The double album status of course has its effect on pricing. The iTunes download alone costs a whopping 17,99 euros in the eurozone, and if you want to buy physical discs that will cost you well over 20 euros, depending on where you make the purchase. This is not very nice. Just look at Dream Theater, many of their albums are about as long but have been released on a single disc and priced accordingly.

Time for closing statements. While the new album's peaks are not as high as some of their previous albums', Echolyn is nonetheless an outstanding effort and what's best about it is its even quality. At best, Echolyn is great and even at its worst, pretty good. The quality "valley" that consists of tracks four through six is not a deep gorge that you want to jump across as soon as you can.

Considering all this, it is my humble opinion that overall, Echolyn is the second best album Echolyn has ever made. Sure, the peaks of As the World are way higher than anything presented here, but that album also contained several really weak tracks that you really do want to jump across. Echolyn has no such failures. It is like a Formula 1 driver that reaches the second place in the championships without winning a single race. It is one of those rare albums that has no really weak tracks. Only the second time for Echolyn.

Yes, that is correct. A decade ago Echolyn already released one album that also didn't contain a single weak track. In fact, it contained only one track. While the new Echolyn is a really, really good album it naturally pales in comparison with Mei (2002) whose title track is the eighth greatest Long Prog Masterpiece of all time. That is the album that the group will hopefully be remembered for, in the decades to come. Get your hands on both, and you have the best possible introduction to this excellent prog group who will hopefully release many, many more albums. I certainly hope we don't have to wait another seven years for the next one.