Presence — Masters and Following
The album opener is the title track, Masters and Following, from the opening piano chords one is given the sense of the bands propensity for music of an epic nature. Sophya’s classical training is evident from her vocals, and there is a distinct orchestral metal influence to certain sections of the track.
Deliver is the second track. After a brief gentle introduction, it heads into much heavier material, Sophya’s vocals seem to get lost in the mix a little at times, specifically in the heavier sections, and there is something about the guitar sound in those heavier metallic moments that feels a little out of place. One can’t help thinking that the production, specifically during the heavier parts of the album is not quite up to the same standard as the material or the musicians on display here. They perhaps deserve better.
Now is the third track, and this is much more melodic and benefits enormously from it. Sophya really gets a chance to open up her voice on this one and it’s a pleasure to behold. Interlude is a brief instrumental piece, with a real horror movies soundtrack vibe to it. The House on the Hill is back to the much heavier material, however this track seems to have corrected the previous problem with the vocals getting lost in the mix. I enjoyed this track quite a bit, the original by Audience is a classic and this is a decent cover. Another cover up next, this time Judas Priest’s classic Freewheel Burning, and whilst the performance sounds really impressive, especially in the vocal department, the production is off putting and ruins what is essentially a really good version of a classic song.
Space Ship Ghost is up next, this is a nice instrumental slice of classic prog rock. This is followed by another cover version, this time it’s the Sparks classic This Town Ain’t Big Enough for the Both of Us. Not sure if it’s just that production, but the pacing of the track feels a little odd at times. Otherwise a good interpretation. Prelude is another of the short instrumental pieces, quite a pretty little track, which works quite nicely. Symmetry is up next, a heavier track that is again quite good but suffers a little from that production. Collision Course is an enjoyable slice of progressive rock, less metallic than a lot of the other tracks, this one works quite nicely. On the Eastern Side is next, another pleasant track that gets a little lost in that production. I seem to have spent an awful lot of time discussing it and it does affect the listening experience, which is a shame as this is a really good record otherwise. Final track, The Revealing is bombastic slab of molten prog goodness, a fantastic way to end the record
“Masters and Following”, is as already mentioned a good progressive/ metal record, which suffers from messy sounding production on the heavier sections. It is really difficult to pick out the individual instruments on those sections, which is a real shame as the band are on fire musically throughout, there are some fantastic performances across the board, the compositions are excellent and it would be very interesting to see the band perform the album live.
The live disc is interesting, whilst the recording is rough it presents an interesting record of the band’s live performances. I’ll certainly be digging back through the band’s back catalogue to see what previous albums are like. I would have liked to give this a four, however that production see’s it slip to a three, however, I would still recommend giving it a listen, others might be able to get past the production issues I had and beyond those issues is a fine album.