Echoverse - Fall Towards the Sky
Echoverse - Fall Towards the Sky
Fall Towards the Sky is another good one from Echoverse, proving that their premier album wasn’t just a one-and-done event …
Fall Towards the Sky
Artist: EchoVerse
7 tracks / 62:09
Prog alert! Lightning strikes twice as Echoverse delivers the goods on their second project, Fall Towards the Sky. Again, this fine band avoids the trap that many prog groups fall into of being pretentious and overly operatic and instead opts for well-written songs that incorporate a classic rock sensibility into the proggy mix. The songwriting is solid and just complex enough to nudge into the progressive rock genre, the playing is impeccable, and the vocals are effective and expressive without becoming self-parody. Lyrically, the content does not shy away from a Biblically sound Christian message, staying more positive and less apocalyptic.
A crisp guitar chord riff, a winding bass line, organ and powerful drumming start the lead track, “Radical Rebirth,” as a strong vocal hook takes center stage and brings us to the chorus: “A new heaven, a new earth No more deception, break the curse A new heaven, a new earth We’ll come together, it’s radical rebirth.”
The same musical mode continues in “Philosophy Abounds” (I’ll mention here that some of the song titles could have been better thought out), along with more excellent lyrics: “You’re outside of time Blurring all the lines How can we ever view Just what we mean to You” – heady stuff to think about for any unbiased listener. Like the first track, there’s some gutsy and inventive lead guitar work and all-around good playing.
"It would take more than a man to free these slaves from bondage - it would take a God" – Charlton Heston’s Moses appropriately intones over the opening of “10 Plagues,” a song about the struggle between the children of Israel and Pharoah.
“The Serpent and the Schism” starts with a runaway-train tempo. After an intense, hard hitting two and a-half minutes the vibe becomes more classic rock influenced (I can almost hear Mountain doing this – but that’s just me…). About seven minutes in, you hear a very strong guitar break and, very effectively, under some gothic but understated organ, you can hear “misère mei, Deus” and “Peace I give, My peace I leave you…” Following this is the ballad, “Gold Bars,” a song about always wanting more. It’s a strong piece with a great change in the middle of the song, emotional and strong.
The penultimate track is “Fall Towards the Sky,” inspired by John 5. Just shy of ten minutes long, this is the ‘big’ song of the album. It’s full of momentum and would potentially be a pretty heavy live number – great drumming from Kyle Fagala and driving guitar by Rob Perez (special mention for Doug Bowers, who does a fine job on organ and very impressive bass throughout the album). Oddly enough, I could imagine Ozzy singing the vocal refrain, “Will it be, chains or free, do you love the misery Won’t you go, drop the show, do you want to be well? Don’t you see, follow Me, this is not the ending Not just hope, you can know, you will be made well”
The laid-back “Here Today” closes the album, showing that these guys don’t need thunder and fury to work out some really strong instrumentation. The changes after the four-minute mark are impressive and creatively constructed.
Kudos to Doug Bowers for keyboards, bass, guitars, vocals and fine production, Rob Perez for rhythm & lead guitar, Kyle Graves for excellent lead vocals, and another Kyle (!) – Kyle Fagala for drums, vocals and excellent, evocative cover art!
Fall Towards the Sky is another good one from Echoverse, proving that their premier album wasn’t just a one-and-done event. Fans of Kansas, The Neal Morse Band, and everything that falls between Classic and progressive rock should enjoy this project by Echoverse, which features good songwriting, excellent vocals and playing, and an unashamed but not force-fed Christian message in the lyrics. Fall towards this album.
- Bert Saraco
4 tocks
You can see concert photography by Bert Saraco at the link below.
