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: : Zeroesque - Self Debut : :
 This
self-titled debut is the brainchild of keyboardist Tim Lehner and guitarist Shawn
Christie, and what a brainchild it is! Both of these gentlemen are young, very
talented pups with bright careers ahead of themselves. Not surprisingly, they are
hence cocky and somewhat full of themselves (I thought their bio and Spinal
tap-worthy pics were rather funny actually, unhindered by any form of modesty), but
they do deliver the goods, which is really all that matters.
Their music is obviously heavily steeped in chops and complex rhythms, but they do
pay sufficient attention to melody to avoid falling too often into the usual cliche
of instrumental songs that are written as mere pretexts for solo after solo. Track
#5 in particular, "Feels Like Falling", really captures the essence of most of the
material offered here. You do get the occasional, smooth-jazz tinged moment (listen
to "Ten Fifteen" and its canonical sax solo to see what I mean), but overall these
guys are at their best when they are bashing your eardrums with high testosterone,
fast-paced heavy prog fusion. As is often the case with this style of music, they
sometimes end up sacrificing the groove just to throw in an extra odd measure here
and there, which is a shame considering how good a lot of the album really is in
spite of that sort of wanking.
That aside, this is really a great album. I think its also worthwhile to note these
guys had the wisdom to keep it down to a very reasonable 43 minutes, which is really
all a human being can take before concentration begins to wander. Perhaps not as raw
and idiosyncratically distinctive as Cerebus Effect, but certainly much more glossy
and carefully crafted from beginning to end. You can think of this as standing
somewhere between Attention Deficit and Planet X, which isn't exactly shabby company
to keep.
Definitely worth checking out if you dig heavy instrumental music. Go to their
website and buy the disc! The explosive solo festoon at the end of "New Math" with
Mr. Moore on center stage is worth the price of the disc, and lets face it folks,
these guys need more velvet shirts.
Rating: 8/10
Keyboards
Reviewer: Luis Nasser
: : Visit the artist web site : :
: : Discography : :
Zeroesque - Self Debut - 2003 |
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