Title: Shifting the Equilibrium
Artiste: Unified Past
Year 2015
Nationality: American
Genre: Progressive Rock
Rank: Noob
7
Expectations: Anteater said it made it into his top ten, so that should be some indication of its quality. I'd expect nothing less than a classic.
1. Erasure principle: Dceptively boppy almost poppy start, then the guitar bites through, and when the vocal comes in it really punches in, very Andersonlike I feel. Some very good guitar work here, and is that mellotron?
2. Smile (In the face of adversity): This is pretty powerful from the off, with some trumpeting keyboards and hard, snarly guitar. Really like the vocal in this; he seems to be finding his own voice, kind of edging towards an AOR/Melodic Metal thing.
3. Etched in stone: Love the jangly guitar that opens this. Sounds like they're kind of robbing that squeaky bit out of Genesis's “Tonight, tonight, tonight”... Song develops really well, with some great performances.
4. Peace remains in the world: Now this is totally Yes. I mean it's almost a carbon copy, not of one of their songs but definitely of their style and Anderson's singing approach.
5. Deviation from a theme (of harmonic origin): Oh I love the way this explodes on guitar and keyboard right out of the gate! An eight minute song and the vocals don't even begin until ... at all. It's an instrumental, and a great chance for everyone to exercise their musical muscle, which they do to great effect. Interesting and impressed to see that one guy does both guitars and keyboards here. Was that a muppet voice at the end??
6. Today is the day: Again though very very Yes, which is something of a disappointment as it makes the band seem less original and innovative.
Final result: Definitely wouldn't have made it into my top ten. A good album, a very good album but way too derivative for my tastes. I can understand anyone having influences, but for my money Unified Past sound too much like Yes here, pretty much all through the album, and it's hard then to judge them on their own merits. An enjoyable album, to be sure, but not close to indispensable.
Rating: 