Stephen I just don't get what people hear in TOUCHSTONE's 'The City Sleeps'. This highly praised album felt completely down the average line for me and nothing's really special about a female-fronted band playing a combo of decent hard rock and symphonic touch in a prog metal corridor. The genre sounds a bit complicated and judging from the band's influences which is also quite vast, ranging from Yes, Van Halen, Dream Theater to Alter Bridge, Elton John, and Our Lady Peace, that can be interesting as well as confusing.

There are several great moments though. 'When Shadows Fall' is a nice 10 minutes track. After the long 3 minutes intro, the vocal wrapped in a very melodic fashion in the veins of Dream Theater and Genesis mix, but I'm pretty sure it's too boggy at that length and probably better at 7 minutes. 'Sleeping Giants' is a great ballad, with alternate vocal and beautiful harmonies, the keys solo is enchanting as well. 'Half Moon Meadow' is also very smooth and nice, with a building up tempo in the last 1 minute. But I do think it's an irony for a metal band to lay the strength on slow songs like these.

'Corridors' and 'Throw Them To The Sky' are plain average. 'These Walls' is a straight forward non-prog track, 'Good Boy Psycho' is quite interesting, the verse is okay, and overall a good track, but I'm not entirely sold with this song. 'Horizons' is a good melodic rock track, perhaps also a ballad, but somehow too long for such a linear song. The title track, 'The City Sleeps', which is an epic 11 minutes is also quite dull, bringing the total score to around 65%

ChaosAngel Let's get this out of the way. The metal purists out there are going to howl about this album, saying it's "not real metal", or some other such nonsense.

There... now onto the actual review.

The City Sleeps is, quite simply, amazing. From the opening riffs of Corridors to the closing, with stops in some of the most haunting and beautiful music I have ever heard, this is definitely a ride worth taking.

To be honest, it is largely a symphonic prog album, but it has enough metal bits, in the form of riffage and solos to be included on this site.

Touchstone have, on this album, earned a solid five stars, purists be damned.

adg211288 The City Sleeps is the third album from UK prog act Touchstone. The band, although most commonly described as a progressive rock act, has many progressive metal and hard rock qualities as well, giving them a wide appeal. In a development from their previous album Wintercoast (2009) the band has acquired some strong leanings into symphonic prog territory, along with a general increase in the progressive nature of their compositions.

Whether Touchstone is ultimately more of a rock or a metal act remains up for debate as of The City Sleeps. If you want to consider the dividing line as how heavy the music is, then The City Sleeps is most definitely a progressive rock album, drawing on hard rock certainly but still a rock album overall. Changing the view to a perspective of technique however and things start getting quite a bit more metal. Just listen to the galloping rhythm of the riff in These Walls for a first class example of what I mean. Regardless of where you want to pigeonhole Touchstone however one thing remains constant, they’re absolutely at the top of their game.

Being a part of the female fronted prog scene that seems to have been gaining some popularity in recent years, Touchstone has one of the best lead singers around in Kim Seviour. Her delivery is melodic and emotive and a true asset to the band. But as good as Kim is I want to give special mention in this review to Touchstone’s second vocalist Rob Cottingham (also keyboardist). Rob doesn’t sing as much Kim does, but when he does his vocals are most definitely of the same calibre as Kim’s. His lines during the gentler parts of the epic When Shadows Fall showcase him at his very best and when both singers duet they complement each other perfectly.

When Shadows Fall is one of two epics on the album, the other being the title track. These two make up some of the very best that the album has to offer, but as with Wintercoast there isn’t a bad track on here, although overall now that I’ve given the album time to sink in I have to say that The City Sleeps doesn’t manage to quite match Wintercoast overall, although it does contain some of the group’s best tracks yet and is a very worthy follow-up to the aforementioned Wintercoast. Despite not topping their previous album, I’m very pleased with Touchstone’s development as a band on The City Sleeps and if this is anything to go by, then Touchstone has a bright and successful career ahead of them. The album comes high recommended.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org), scored at 9.0/10)

Time Signature When shadows fall...

Genre: progressive metal/rock

Touchstone is definitely one of the most sensational acts on the modern progressive rock scene these days. Wintercoast was massively progressive and expressive, yet incredibly catchy and full of intelligent mass appeal. The follow-up album "The City Sleeps" is, fortunately, characterized by the exact same qualities that made its predecessor such a great album.

On "The City Sleeps" Touchstone explore further their quite unique metal- and hardrock-infused brand of progressive rock. The album starts out with the quite massive sounding 'Corridors' whose initial eastern touches gives it a dark and exotic feel, while the rest of the tune is rich in melodic and haunting guitar figures and pumping hard rocking bass patterns and grand keyboard effects. The following track, the massively epic 'When Shadows Fall', retains the darkness, but takes the listener on an even grander journey through lots of moods and sounds - from grandiose, almost symphonic passages over retro-prog sections and mellow passages to all out chucking guitar-centered hardrock figures. And this particular track, along with the equally massive and epic title track, is pretty much indicative of the overall sound and variation of this album.

Being the rock dude I am, I really appreciate how Touchstone incorporate hardrock and all out metal riffage into their brand of progressive rock, as in the balls out rocker 'These Walls' or 'Good Boy Psycho', which is more of a progressive metal track, and juxtapose them with more mellow and melodic tunes, like the top class prog ballad 'Half Moon Meadow'. And we are not only talking juxtaposition of tracks; most of the individual tunes on this album contain both ripping metal riffage and soft sections as well as more retro prog parts (and often the different elements co-occur on top of each other).

There seems to be somewhat of a Genesis-influence on this album (the keyboards particularly seem inspired by Duke, while 'When Shadows Fall' reminds me of 'Dance on a Volcano' from A Trick of the Tail. And, I quite like that. I like the idea of Genesis-style elements co-occurring with all out metal attacks. It's this blend of elements from across the progressive rock and metal scenes that makes Touchstone's sound so appealing (to me at least).

The musicianship is top notch as is the song writing, and Kim Sevoir's silken voice fits into the picture like a glove. Fans of progressive music can look forward to Genesis-like keys, odd time signatures, epic songs, complex song structures and so on, and fans of metal can loo forward to hardrocking riffage, pumping bass, double bass drums, guitar harmonies and so on. Essentially, this is a progressive metal album, or perhaps a metal progressive album... in any case, it should appeal to fans of progressive rock as well as fans of progressive metal.

"The City Sleeps" is simply sensational. Should you be a fand of strong potent riffage and massively epic and expressive progressive music, buy this album now or spend the rest of your life in regret.

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)

adg211288 Wintercoast is the second effort by UK band Touchstone. Marketing themselves as prog rock with real bite, there are times where Touchstone comes across as also being very much a metal band. On Wintercoast the likes of the title track and Zinomorph are strong showcases of just how much Touchstone are a metal act. The album is quite varied, other songs showcase their prog side and indeed why they are often categorised, indeed more often as, a progressive rock band.

An interesting but brief acoustic passage begins this album before a voice over from actor Jeremy Irons comes in, which takes us right into the title track Wintercoast. This is the longest track on the album and as stated above it is one of the heaviest. Though it has its lighter sections, this is one of the tracks which are going to appeal to a metal crowd. The dual male and female vocals set a high standard on this track for both of the vocalists which remains throughout the rest of the album. Though I confess to not knowing their first effort Discordant Dreams anywhere near as well as I do Wintercoast 9at the time of writing at least), having heard all of that album at least once I was of the opinion that the female vocalist was the superior of the male, and while it is the idea that she is the front of the band, I do feel that the male vocalist has come on well between albums, making them much more evenly matched. It’s a winning formula. This song also features some strong guitar. Later track Joker in the Pack is another, albeit much shorter track which features some of the same heaviness as Wintercoast, though the acoustic verses and chorus are something worth writing home about. It’s a very addictive and progressive setup. It gets heavier again about halfway through with a chugging riff that really showcases their metal side.

Following on is Strange Days, one of the tracks the band used to promote the album. It is one of the more commercial tracks that Wintercoast offers, featuring some classic rock style riffs on the guitars and hooks in the chorus. At four minutes seven seconds its one of the shorter songs the album offers, discounting the intro and outro track, of which I might that, although I normally bash the use of intro and/or outro tracks, this is one instance where they actually seem to work. Makes a nice refreshing change to say the least.

Another lengthy track follows, Voices. I really like the vocals from Kim on this track, they’re really fitting with some light melodic music backing her. It’s quite haunting in these places. Some distorted guitars are present on the track but are used less. It’s much the ballad type without being completely a ballad. There’s only female vocals in this track, which is the same setup as what I would consider the album’s true ballad, Solace. Despite their lightness, it is very difficult to accuse Touchstone have being overly pop or commercial. Line in the sand is another female vocal only track.

Zionmorph is another track with really heavy riffs. It’s one of my favourites and also is the other track next to Strange Days that the band use to promote the album. If you have a Last.fm account you can download a radio edit version for free from there. Main riff is really good in this one and some more good dual vocals from Kim and Rob.

Nearer the end of the album is the two part song The Witness. If joined into one track instead of two it would be the longest on the album, with a total time of twelve and a half minutes. As is its one four a bit job and then one eight and a bit job. The two showcase Touchstone’s prog side very well, with some dark, almost doomy music to begin part one. Part one fades into part two effortlessly. Unusually led by Rob’s vocals, part two features both some very metal style guitar and proggy synth. I suppose this setup here begs the question - Should they have been one track? The answer is probably, although they managed the split rather well considering. To end the album is another Jeremy Irons voiceover, but for some reason as an unlisted track.

Overall I have really enjoyed this album and it is one of the finest releases from 2009 that I have heard. I think it will appeal to fans of both the progressive rock and metal sides of their music. This is absolutely essential listening.

(Review originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)