Published on Aug 30, 2000
Those of you who checked out our interview with Kansas’ Rich
Williams on our sister site, Power Chords, heard the eyepatched
progressive guitar maven talk about a new band he liked called
Under The Sun. Needless to say, when Da Boss said that he had the
CD and I could review it, I jumped at the chance.
After three listens, I came to only two conclusions: one, I
really liked it, and two, it was going to be damned hard to
quantify or describe. It’s easy to call a band progressive rock;
but within that spectrum you can get everything from Gentle Giant
to Savatage. Under The Sun is a little bit of both.
Having played together for ten years in Southern California (and
what is it about California and prog lately? Between Spock’s Beard
and UTS, there’s a lot of good things happening), UTS has a unique
sound. Rush comes to mind in the insistent guitar of Chris Shryack
and the bass lines of Kurt Barabas; occasional moments of Kansas
pop up in the keyboards of Matt Evidon; and Shryack can do an eerie
echo of “Bark At The Moon”-era Ozzy.
Don’t let the namedropping fool you, however. UTS has its own
distinctive blend of sound, alternately stark and serene, rich with
the band’s eponymous spirituality yet still stinging with impact
and edge. Let’s call it “damned good” and leave it at that.
Under The Sun is jam-packed with wonderful, wonderful songs.
From the opening wide-screen grandeur of “This Golden Voyage” to
the metal-tinged “Seeing Eye God” to the ominous mini-saga “The
Time Being”, there isn’t a bad track to be found.
Special note, however, should be made of a few tracks. “Tracer”
is reminiscent of Rush’s
Permanent Waves CD, tight and clear lyrically with several
neat twists of phrase. “Breakwater” is a bright, martial tune that
should somehow get a special award for gratuitous bagpipes. The
lyric poem “Perfect World” is disturbing and bitter, a dark
counterpoint to the soft, transcendent close “From Henceforth Now
And Forever”.
Under The Sun is refreshing, talented, reminiscent of the
best of progressive rock without ever being derivative, and
definitely worth your time and money. Kudos to Magna Carta Records
for continuing to bring us these great, great discs. This one moves
straight to my Top Ten list for the year, and if you like
progressive rock, it’ll be on yours, too.