By Anthony Mark Happel
This largely unadventurous, self-proclaimed “prog”-trio consists of vocalist/guitarist Joseph Demaree, bassist Casey Costello and drummer David Wolf. They play fairly middle-of-the-road, slightly-better-than-average, “proggy” rock, with some occasional gloomy overtones, but, sadly, in no way are they even remotely comparable to the bands listed on the CD’s promo sticker under RIYL: King Crimson, No Means No and Clutch.
I can’t figure out why in the world they would cite those three quite unrelated bands when they sound nothing like any of them. They generally have a straightforward, mundane rock tone on most songs, even when they are trying to stretch the envelope. They do sound a bit like Can when they use negative space on a couple songs, but they lose themselves completely at the mid-point of this album, culminating in the overwrought 10-minute track entitled, “The Sport of Hunting.” On the sonorous “Under Palms” they become more detached and jagged (moderately) than anywhere else on this record, but it’s not enough to save them. They should give us more of that flava the next time out, and drop all the prog pretenses.
