Verdict (Rating): Too left field for me (60%)
More Info: www.ringofmyth.com, www.unicornrecords.com
Ring of Myth are an American progressive rock trio consisting of Danny Flores on vocals/bass/guitars/keyboards, George Picado on guitars and Scott Rader on drums/percussion/keyboards and vocals. The band have previously released an album called "Unbound" on the Kinesis label in 1996. This new album sees a move to Unicorn Records and also the return of original drummer Scott Rader back into the band.
Doing some research for the review it seems like on "Unbound" the band's sound was a marriage of Yes, Rush and Genesis. I guess any progressive rock trio is going to be compared to Rush at some point in their career.
Listening to "Weeds" I can hear the Yes and Rush influences, but as the band say themselves this album represents a move towards "a more experimental, cacophonous, left field, anything-sort-of-goes mode". One of the reasons that Yes are always going to the reference point for the bands are vocals of Danny which bear a noticeable resemblance to Jon Anderson albeit without reaching the same heights as Jon. In their early days the band were called Catfish after the Jimi Hendrix song "Catfish Blues" and I can, at least I think I can, hear a Hendrix influence behind their more 'cacophonous' sound.
I seem to be getting really picky when it comes to vocals recently. Although I can't quite put my finger on why, I found Danny's vocals slightly annoying, maybe because I kept on thinking of them as a below par tribute to Yes vocalist Jon Anderson. Not really fair as I should be evaluating them on their own merits, but then who said life was fair…. In fact, I got the impression that the whole 'new experimental' approach being taken by the band was an attempt to stop the Yes comparisons which I'm sure followed their first album. In general, the discordant/cacophonous style didn't work for me and after listening to the album, I was left wishing the band has taken a more mainstream approach.
