Back in the mid 90's I was fortunate enough, being in Calfornia, to see a brand new progressive rock band called Echolyn at Progfest '94. I was awestruck and blown away at the power that a progressive band rocked in a modern way without being 'metal'. Needless to say, after their performance I quickly purchased all their cds to date. In 2000, they remastered their second release, Suffocating the Bloom, so as part of my "looking back" series of Archival reviews I decided to review this magnificent release.
It's so amazing that a band can better their already great music by remastering it.
Echolyn was a part of a revival of Americam progressive music in the early 90's but to label them neo-prog does them a great injustice. Plus the band's usage of real strings rather than always relying on synthesized ones is another quality that defies the 'neo-prog' category.
Anyways back to my review of Suffocating the Bloom. The highlights for me are emotion driven "Memoirs from Between", the quirky rockers of "21", "A Little Nonsense" and "Here I Am". My absolute favorite Echolyn track is the 11 part "A Suite For The Everyman". This is their "Tarkus" and "Supper's Ready" all rolled into one but more. I don't need to convince most people that this is a great CD but to those that haven't heard of the band, please go to Echolyn dot com and order up Suffocating the Bloom NOW!
Thank you Echolyn for some great music!
Reviewed By Ron Fuchs On May 20th, 2003
