Myriad Natural Elements

To counter paraphrase The Byrds, if you want to be a rock and roll star, don’t go into prog rock. More often than not, you’ll engender more confused looks than praise, but to counter paraphrase Shakespeare, I’ve come to praise Myriad, not bury them.

There are a lot of obstacles against a band to record a prog album independently these days, most of which are the factors of distribution. You may get your tunes on some of the prominent web-radio streams devoted to the genre, but that’s about it. The rest is up to live shows, review coverage and luck (oh, and talent helps). Well, Myriad has talent, without a doubt. Their sound skirts the path between Rush’s “Permanent Waves” and the heavier Adrian Belew King Crimson stuff, and when they cut loose they can blow the roof off nicely. The problem with “Natural Elements” is that they haven’t allowed themselves as much opportunity to get there.

Take for instance their “Natural Elements Suite”, and in specific the track “Air”. The band just rocks and the voice, also reminicent of Belew to an extent, is very complimentary, but the lyrics have the impact of a middle school science primer. The key line is “Air is the thing we need”, but the other lines serve to illustrate why air is the thing we need. This happens throughout the Suite and was a little off-putting. It takes a while to get to the heart of the matter and I think that self-consciousness hogties the band from getting personal. Along the same lines, the heavy-handed Holst-like opening of “Gladiator” doesn’t serve the bulk of the track, otherwise a great piece.

But on the other hand, “InterMOEzzo (for Moe)” is unassailable and “Priority One”, obviously influenced by Neil Peart and company, had me smiling for the better part of its fifteen minutes. So my thumbs are firmly “up” on the disc though there are things that didn’t sit well, and mostly because I can sense Myriad is finding its own ground. As a starter, “Natural Elements” is more confident than many indie projects and alludes to an even stronger future.

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Release Date: October 05, 2004
Tracks: 10 - Time: 54:30
Produced by: Fred Guarino & Myriad
Format: CD
Website: www.myriadtrio.com

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