22 songs, total length less than 45 minutes, and an album title that is strong to say the least, this sounds far more like an extreme metal outfit than something that is deemed ‘Crossover Prog’. But, that is what we have here and the Americans have come up with a collection of songs that are diverse, sometimes commercial, sometimes challenging, instrumental, poppy and so on. I have been racking my brains to come up with an accurate comparison and the closest I can come up with is the mighty Cardiacs, but even that isn’t quite right. Some progressive bands take a whole load of ideas and then find a linking theme to combine them into epics, whereas these guys take a far more direct approach and if they want to have a song that is under a minute in length then that is absolutely fine by them.
Some of the songs are very staccato in nature, very abrupt and ‘pronk’ (hence the Cardiacs reference), but others are far more dreamy, so much so that at times it feels that there could well be different bands involved. There is always a real alternative lo-fi feel to what is going on, so much so that one could imagine this being delivered out of a bedroom in the early Eighties and then being devoured by fans on one of the many independent labels that were around at the time. This would never have been mainstream prog, but it may well have found friends in that underground subculture when the music scene was just exploding with new ideas and styles. Fast forward to 2013 and although the independent label is now Bandcamp, in many ways this is very true to that period, even down to some of the keyboard sounds being used (just play “AP4: Ghostman (Boss Battle)” to see what I mean). There are times when the vocals are almost throwaway, when at others we have harmonies, always with passion and angst.
This album is always going to appeal more to those who enjoy their music to be a little less refined, and want to be constantly challenged and this is an album that definitely does all of that. This is a band that keeps coming up with new ideas, and the result is an album that in many ways is all over the place which means that if you don’t like the particular style or song don’t worry about it as another will be along in a minute literally. Easily the best of their work that I have heard so far.
