Ad Infinitum - Ad Infinitum (99)

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01 - Ad Infinitum
02 – Immortality
03 – Waterline
04 - Physician Heal Thyself
05 - A Winter's Tale
06 - Rain Down
07 – Overland
08 - All Hallows Eve
09 - Neither Here Nor There
10 - Ad Infinitum (reprise)


Sounding very much like an album from 20 years previous, Ad Infinitum's debut is filled with such staples of the progressive rock sound as time shifts, intellectual lyrics, and layers of intricately played guitars and Mellotrons. There is even the cover art by Roger Dean.

The result is an album that while far from original is nonetheless a strong addition to the prog-rock canon.

At times, the group does hover a bit close to sounding like a cover band, but it's usually only for a brief period such as the introduction to the title track that sounds uncomfortably similar to Pink Floyd's "Shine on You Crazy Diamond."

For much of the album, the fact that the band melds together the styles of various progressive artists means that the music comes across as an interesting hybrid rather than simply a carbon copy.

"Overland" in particular sounds like a meeting of the members of the classic lineups of Yes and Genesis and like the rest of the album is recorded far better than those bands ever were.

Progressive fans wary of new releases that falsely claim to be throwbacks to the golden age of prog-rock should have no complaints about this one.