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Album Reviews

Short album reviews by The Prog Yak.  No puffery here, just a simple review and score from 1 to 5 yaks!  Have a new album you'd like The Prog Yak to review?  Let us know.

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The Prog Yak
Eleventh Hour
3.5

3.5

Yaks

Eleventh Hour

Novena

345

#

UK

First full-length album from this new prog-metal group with Haken frontman Ross Jennings as lead vocalist.  A highly anticipated release after the band's debut EP in 2016.

This album and band will, naturally, be compared with Haken. My take...this album would have come in at a solid 4 Yaks and bested Haken's 2020 offering of Virus (3.5 Yaks), but it has one serious problem for me...I feel many of the album's best songs (such as Prison Walls) are marred by over use of growling vocals and lengthy narration which is included for dramatic effect. (It's no one's fault. Or is it? =) These bits don't add much to the "song" for me. They may make it a bit more interesting on a first listen, but then just get in the way upon subsequent plays. I think the band should have left these parts out on the album (particularly the narration bits), but then added them during any live performances. This would have made the album listens more fluid and energized and delighted the crowd at live shows with this added drama that would have never been heard previously by the fans until at the show. But alas, there it is for every listen. 3.5 Yaks.

Novena

Released:
Run Time:
Mar 6, 2020
1 hr 13 min
Highlights:
Disconnected • Prison Walls • Lucidity
Reviewer:
The Prog Yak
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