Pure Reason Revolution – 'Above Cirrus' Album Review

Tracklist:

1. Our Prism

2. New Kind Of Evil

3. Phantoms

4. Cruel Deliverance

5. Scream Sideways

6. Dead Butterfly

7. Lucid

There is a lot of ambition on show with this album, this is a band seeking to make a statement. They have created something expansive, grandiose and, at times, epic. It has the feel of being a concept album which I suspect it’s intended to be, my only question is what’s the concept? I’m sure it’s obvious but it didn’t quite connect up for me, not that it matters when there is so much great musicianship on display.

There are elements of Muse, Led Zeppelin,, Pink Floyd and Evanescence. There is mix of full on Rock, what used to be known as Adult Orientated Rock, Pop, an almost Folklife feel, Dance and and an operatic tendency. I did wonder at times whether this was the start of a Prog Rock revival but it’s better than that sounds.

A couple of the songs are over-extended and would have benefited from more brevity, more focus and more clarity on what they wanted to be but on the whole, when they get it right the only word to describe is epic.

This band clearly know how to rock but also how to be quiet. They do like to switch the tone and style within songs, at times it feels almost like they are too experimental. On at least one song I wanted them just to stop, focus on what was working well and stop trying to be clever.

There is a lot of thought which has gone into this album, a feeling of cleverness, of ingenuity, of and I’ll repeat myself, ambition.

I think this could hit big if it finds its audience, it will sound amazing played live, it has that large stadium feel to it, for a band who have been together for a long time it also feels fresh, new and exciting, a difficult track to pull off when you’re so familiar with each other.