Transmission - Id, Ego and Superego
Point Music - 25 June 2007
By Paddy Walsh
Prog sure has had a strange decade. On the one hand, bands such as
Opeth,
Porcupine Tree,
Meshuggah and
Tool have brought it down exciting new alleyways, contorting our notions of 'progressive' music. Alternately, however, we've been fed a glut of technically proficient
Dream Theater clones whose seemingly one reason for existing is to obfuscate what 'progressive' actually means - in their case often being little more than a widdly power metal band with the odd weird time signature thrown in. Yawn.
Transmission sit somewhere in the middle. Yes, they chug and chomp at the bit of Portnoy and Co. wiith fervour, but they've at least had the good sense to have a few ideas of their own. Vocalist Juan Roos does have a tendency to do the irritating LaBrie thing at times, but when he lets go and allows a slightly throaty aspect of his voice take hold he can be rather effective - furthermore on '
Calling' he's drenched in effects, which adds an aggressive edge to proceedings.
Musically,
Transmission usually eschew technical overindulgence, but don't always resist this temptation - witness the title track for evidence of this. However, attempts are made at diversity, such as the flamenco section in the aforementioned title track. Opener '
One Seed' and follow up '
Buried Alive' are satisfyingly heavy, but subsequently wander into irritating AOR balladry on '
One Day', letting themselves down in the process as it meanders into windswept solo territory and irritating 'heartfelt' histronics from Roos.
Transmission at times fall prey to the neo-prog tendency towards contrived stabs at emotivity, and as usual it comes across ill-judged amidst the mostly overtly clinical material to be found. It's a strange and unfortunate reality that bands of this ilk often suffer from such an over-emphasis on the technical aspects of progressive rock, forgetting that beautiful moments such as '
Starless' were as important to
King Crimson's 70's legacy as '
Lark's Tongues in Aspic pt. 2'. However,
Transmission are nonetheless a cut above the rest in many respects, and afficionados of this style (of which there are more than a few of you out there) could do a lot worse than check out
Id, Ego and Superego.
Official Transmission Website
Official Transmission MySpace
Official Point Music Website
