The American progressive rock band The Far Cry have released with their debut album If Only... (2021, see review) an excellent album. Our reviewer wrote at the time:" Although in the longer compositions the music tends to sound like studio jams, I consider this debut CD as a dynamic and varied effort with lots of interesting musical ideas and good musicianship". Of course we were not the only website or magazine that gave them a good review. More raving reviews followed. The band was certainly encouraged and pleased with the excellent reviews. But at the same time they were faced with a decision as to what to do for their next step. Instead of immediately preparing for live performance, the decision was made to come up with a follow-up album. Because the band didn't want to be seen as a "one-off" band. No they wanted to be a fully legitimate neo-prog-rock entity. I guess they made the right decision after listening to Once There Was several times. Compared to line up that recorded their debut only one minor change is notable. Bryan Collin, the guitarist on this release, decided to exit the band to pursue his own particular musical interests and projects. His replacement is Brendan Kinchla, a Berklee School of Music grad. Keyboard player Chris Dabbo was originally brought in as a session player during the early stages of the recording of their first musical effort. He is now fully on-board. They are complemented by drummer Robert Hutchinson and bassist Jeff Brewer who is also responsible for the bass synths, bass pedals, some guitar parts and all of the lead and backing vocals. The band themselves writes about Once There Was: "The entire CD takes the listener on a musical journey with thought provoking lyrics, strong vocals, shifting tempos and time signatures, ambient interludes, haunting melodies and well crafted and powerful arrangements. The Far Cry captures the spirit of classic 70"s era progressive rock and ushers it into the 21st century". I guess I just don't have to add something to it. This tells the whole story of what the band and their music stands for. For those who are not satisfied with the information made public by the band itself, I can provide some additional information. All you have to know is what the four album tracks, which are most of the time rather long, sounds like and who might have influenced them on those tracks. The album opens very strongly with Unholy Waters. Here you can hear influences taken from UK (In The Dead Of Night), Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Yes, Steve Hackett and Genesis. The bands shows on this strong opener what they have in store music wise. Which means strong bass and bass pedal parts reminding me of the late Chris Squire. And above all excellent guitar and synthesizer solos. Most of those guitar solos are here accompanied by majestic Mellotron and bass pedal parts. Giving the music an extra bombastic progressive rock sound bringing within the song very beautiful climaxes. As for the lyrics. Unholy Waters is loosely based on the Bermuda Triangle. It's about unexplained aircrafts and oceancrafts disasters at sea throughout history. They expanded it and include the entire mysterious oceans where they are missing. The strong instrumental Crossing Pangea is next. It starts with an impressive intro and is followed by a bit of a weird counter-intuitive drum rhythm. Many solos on the electric guitar and synthesizer can be enjoyed again. Also again the influences of Yes, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Genesis and UK are notable. Crossing Pangea is about adventurers crossing the supercontinent of Pangea and the trials and tribulations they would encounter traversing the many different landscapes and barriers, ie mountains, desserts, jungles and rivers, etc. They used the changing music to represent each one of those challenges. The Following is a more mellow track with again strong instrumental parts performed on the guitars and synthesizers. Yes comes to the surface once again. The Following tells the story of a young boy growing up into manhood by following all the rules of government and society ultimately to his demise. They might have saved the best part to end this excellent album. With Once There Was the band created their own half hour long Magnum Opus. As for the lyrics. This is a story of smalltown USA, taking place in the 1950's and 60's and the changes it goes through as big box stores, and high tech industries move in bringing with them multimedia technologies that change the charm and simple lifestyle of living in a small community. The cover of the CD is tied to the title song as representing a quiet and peaceful place to live, as it used to be. As for the music the twelve part title track takes the listener on a musical journey on which all members for the last time show how talented they are on their instruments. It contains several musical moods. From mellow to up tempo. It is all present in this excellent compositions. There is so much happening that it is very hard to explain. You just have to experience it yourself because once you have listened to it, words simply fail you. All the previously mentioned musical influences come to the surface again. Although it seems as if Rick Wakeman is even more present here than on the previous tracks. Again lots of bass pedals and Mellotron parts that provide lots of bombastic sounds and musical climaxes. After the final notes are played you can only gasp for air. Wow what an incredible musical rollercoaster Once There Was is. Well, in the end you can also say this about the entire album. An album that is a series of musical highlights. As is evident from my explanation about the individual songs, I cannot catch the band on a bad song or give a word of negative criticism. The band has almost made the ultimate musical album that every lover of this genre can enjoy. With this new album they have once again raised the bar and did not want to be satisfied with less. I can therefore only recommend this album. Especially to lovers of the previously mentioned influences. Retro prog and neo prog lovers will especially enjoy this excellent album. An album that belongs to the best released in 2025. For sure. No doubt about it. The band can and may be very proud of what they have released. All the efforts have finally paid off. ****+ Henri Strik (edited by Tracy van Os van den Abeelen) Where to buy? |
