http://www.progscape.com/rev-195.php

Poland seems to have a growing prog/prog-metal scene. If Riverside and Indukti are any indication, Polish bands seem to be taking lessons equally in Tool-like heaviness and Porcupine Tree-inspired ambience. And one knows deep down inside that there has to be more heavy Polish prog metal out there. I'm not quite sure that Animations fits that bill, but their debut release, conveniently self-titled, seems to be pointing in that direction.

Animations (the band) is an instrumental quartet featuring a pretty traditional line-up musically: guitar/bass/drums/keyboards. Rather than drawing from Tool and PT, as mentioned above, it sounds like the four guys in Animations have been studying their Dream Theater and Liquid Tension Experiment albums pretty closely, perhaps with a bit of a side trip to Planet X. Some serious instrumental chops, and an occasional foray into slightly more, well - wank-worthy arenas balance their heaviness. Kuba Debski is an impressive guitarist, made even more impressive by his tight rhythm chops being showcased as often as his nimble-fingered flights of fancy on the fretboard. Melodically, he's balanced well by Tomek Konopka's keyboard playing, which sometimes shows as much Wakeman influence as Rudess. Bartek Bisaga and Pawel Larysz hold down the rhythm section, which is no mean feat. Animations' tracks are build around quick changes of time and tempo, and these two have to handle those changes with as much ease as you or I count out common time. The fact that they do so, and make it look and sound that easy, scores them some points.

Compositionally, well - the songs are less song and more springboards for instrumental excellence. I'm not saying this is necessarily bad, but I am pointing out that if you (the listener) are looking for instrumental rock with a more song based structure, where instrumental voices take the place of vocals and lyrics, then Animations may not be for you. If, however, you like your instrumental rock loud, hard and fast, with enough virtuosity to peel paint off the walls at 100 dB, then look no further.

The album opens deceptively, with the three minute "Intro/Dare You Enter?". Based on the title, one expects cascades of hammer ons, pull offs, and keyboard/guitar unison. Instead, one gets layers of synths creating an ambient bed of sound, lulling the listener into complacency, perhaps. This is followed by the appropriately titled "Sonic Maze" a labyrinthine melange of sound shifting through a dozen different musical phrases in just over 4 minutes. Bartek Bisaga's bass playing makes some nice prominent appearances here, with short rolling solo phrases that set things off nicely.

The 14-minute "911" exemplifies everything Animations has to offer as an album: tight musical interplay, serious keyboard chops, and harmonic complexity. While not ascending to the same kind of musical statistical density that would render a page of Zappa composition a black page, there are more notes per second here than most people could shake a stick at. There are tempo changes galore here as well - don't think for a moment that this piece is nothing but shredding sheets of sound. Roughly 8:40 in, Tomek Konopka gets the spotlight for a wonderfully lyrical piano solo that shows that the band is more than capable of showing restraint where needed. The symphonic nature of this section (lasting nearly 3 minutes) is a fantastic side trip, and one I'd like to see explored further in a composition of its own. Judging by the titles of the subsections (as well as a companion piece later on the album, "912 (The Day After)"), I'd guess that the song is a sort of tribute/memoriam to the events of, and people lost during, 11 September 2001.

The album's title track closes out the band's debut offering, and at over 18 minutes, is the longest track here. Floydian synths open the piece, with layers of synth strings and analogue sounding keyboards swirling from channel to channel for over 4 minutes. It may seem a bit over-extended (and perhaps allow comparison to the opening of "Octavarium" from Dream Theater's 2005 album of the same name), but it flows nicely from the quietly melodic "912 (The Day After)" which precedes it on the album. The following 4 to 5 minutes are mostly restrained and mid-tempo, showing some reasonable facsimile of emotional playing before the gloves come off, metaphorically, around ten minutes in. Double kick drumming, heavy organ and guitar begin to dominate, and the band is back in full on metal mode. The piece ends in dramatic fashion, with a long, slow buildup worthy of comparison to recent Dream Theater album closers "Octavarium", "In The Presence of Enemies", or "In The Name of God".

If I keep mentioning Dream Theater throughout, it's because the similarities are pretty obvious. It's easy to hear that the band heavily influences Animations. While there are certainly less worthy bands out there to emulate, at times Animations wear their influences too openly on their sleeves. There were several times while listening to this album that people walked by and asked if it was a new Dream Theater album. Time, hopefully, will lend the group the compositional acuity to build from their influences, rather than use those influences as the actual raw materials to build their songs. Time and experience should also help them to tighten up their compositions. Phrases have a tendency to extend for the sake of extending (oddly, a criticism often leveled at more recent Dream Theater albums); at nearly 70 minutes, Animations is a lengthy release, one which might be judiciously pared back to a more palatable 55 to 60 minutes.

Animations shows a lot of promise on this debut release; time will tell if they use this as a springboard to develop their own unique prog-metal voice, or if they remain just a competent clone of modern Dream Theater/LTE.

Bill Knispel

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