martindavey87 I originally came across this band after hearing and falling in love with the song 'Transmigration of Souls', and upon finding out that their singer was none other than Enchant's Ted Leonard, I just knew I had to have this album.

One word: Wow.

After a two minute instrumental opening track, the song 'Sacred Treasure' completely blew me away, with its intro full of random guitar/keyboard/bass licks and solos, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. So many instruments playing so many different things at once. Interestingly layered melodies and harmonies makes this an instant classic in my eyes.

The typical prog metal cliché is that this is very 'Dream Theater-inspired', and whilst I'm not denying that, Thought Chamber have a very cool, exotic style and mixture of elements which make this a truly unique group. The amazing playing and songwriting style could easily stand toe-to-toe against the genre's pioneers, and songs like 'Sacred Treasure', 'Balance of One', 'God of Oblique' or any of the instrumentals justify this.

At times Leonard's vocals seem a little thin for this style of music, but hey, I'm not complaining, it still sounds awesome. In fact, there is nothing to complain about, this is one hell of a debut, and deserves a place in every prog fans collection.

UMUR "Angular Perceptions" is the debut full-length studio album by US progressive metal act Thought Chamber. The album was released through InsideOut Music in February 2007. Thought Chamber was formed in 2006 by guitarist Michael Harris (solo, Darkology, Zanister) and lead vocalist Ted Leonard (Enchant, Spock´s Beard). They brought in bassist Derek Blakley and drummer Rob Stankiewicz (both from Haji's Kitchen), and keyboard player Bobby Williamson (Outworld) to complete the lineup.

The music style on "Angular Perceptions" is a technically well played, relatively complex, and melodic type of progressive metal. It´s occasionally more rock oriented that metal oriented, but there are enough heavy parts and metal leanings for the album to be labelled metal. The band are incredibly talented and well playing, and Ted Leonard delivers one of his most remarkable vocal performances reaching both high and low notes with ease. The vocal melodies are strong and memorable too, which further helps him to shine.

Although Thought Chamber often wanders off into technical instrumental territory, they always make it sound like it´s a natural part of the tracks. Nothing is placed there for flash and the tracks flow nicely despite the structural complexity and adventurous ideas. Even the instrumental "Mr Qwinkle's Therapy" features a musical red thread and a strong melodic sensibility. While the music is often melodic and uplifting, it´s great to hear a track like "A Mind Beyond" which incorporates a darker atmosphere and showcases that Thought Chamber is capable of producing relatively diverse material. "Angular Perceptions" is generally an album featuring an abundance of details and it´s one of those releases where you hear something new each time you give it a listen.

It´s not a 100% unique sounding release, and there are nods toward classic 70s/80s progressive rock like Kansas, Yes, and Rush in the music, and it´s also hard to completely avoid a Dream Theater reference either, but overall Thought Chamber has created a relatively distinct sound. The album is well produced which is another plus in the book, and upon conclusion "Angular Perceptions" is an extremely impressive debut album by Thought Chamber, and it´s obvious that these guys are seasoned veterans of the scene. A 4.5 star (90%) rating is deserved.

Warthur When you have a progressive metal act coming onto the scene well over a decade after Images & Words hit and they call themselves some variation on "(cognitive process) (indoor space)", you more or less know what you can expect: technical, flashy, showy, and sometimes cheesy progressive metal in a Dream Theater vein. Psykerion is Thought Chamber's second album and it's certainly a technically competent piece of work, but at the same time it often comes down to mere showboating rather than crafting music which actually makes an emotional connection with the listener. If you are very fond of the Dream Theater style of prog metal, it can't hurt to give this one a try - but then again, the band name already told you that.

siLLy puPPy PSYKERION is the 2nd album by THOUGHT CHAMBER. This is the first time i've heard of them much less heard them so this is my first taste of their brand of progressive metal that has been getting much attention and high praise. It is a concept album and is put into a story form that is told by a young boy genius named Avakus on the spaceship Karakryps-One which is on a mission of some sort in the galaxy known as Psykerion. The events that unfold cause this young boy to endure an existential quandary and this is all backed up by some extremely top notch musicianship. Michael Harris is the virtuoso guitarist and keyboard player who adds his idiosyncratic signature on most of the tracks. His interplay with bassist Jeff Plant, Mike Haid on drums and Bill Jenkins on more keyboards is one of the most exciting sounds i've heard in prog metal in a while. While they still reside on the Dream Theater branch of prog metal, they have sufficiently distanced themselves from being clones and have a refreshing futuristic feel that some of the older bands have failed to achieve.

I have listened to this quite a bit lately because it is some intense technical metal that steers clear of alienating the listener. This band really knows how to deliver some satisfying stuff that blends the technical and emotional seamlessly. The fast runs are always counterbalanced by slower parts and often the call-and-response of the instruments creates an atmosphere that feels like galaxies flying by outside the spaceship. The production is top notch as well with everything being mixed perfectly and the mixture of short instrumentals with longer vocal rich compositions is very brilliantly played out indeed. The vocals of Ted Leonard sometimes remind me of Fran Cosmo of Orion The Hunter and the later Boston since he has a high pitched voice that hits all the high notes effortlessly.

Everything that works about this album is absolutely great, but unfortunately this doesn't come off as a perfect album for me. The problem lies in the fact that a few of these tracks just stray from the sound that this band has crafted so well. It's especially true in the slower songs. They clearly pay tribute to their favorite 70s progsters. For example “Light Year Time” sounds to me like a Kansas meets Styx kind of tune. “Isles Of Bizen” reminds me so much of Yes' “And You And I” with its chord progressions that I can't help but start singing “A man conceived a moment's answers to the dream.....” “Breath Of Life” sounds like it came from one of the gazillion Neal Morse projects (Ted's Spock's Beard days showing up here) and “Transcend” sounds like a long lost Kansas song with some serious spicing up of course. All of this ruins this as a perfect album for me but I still find some of the cream of the crop like “Kerakryps” to be highly exciting and very much looking forward to how this band develops their own sound further as well as hoping they ditch the blatant influences and pack them into more subtle forms of hero worshiping.

UMUR "Psykerion" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US progressive metal act Thought Chamber. The album was released through InsideOut Music in September 2013. There have been quite a few changes in the lineup since the debut and as a consequence the only remaining members of the lineup that recorded "Angular Perceptions (2007)" are band founder/guitarist Michael Harris and lead vocalist Ted Leonard (Enchant, Affector, Spock´s Beard).

While Michael Harris was the main composer on "Angular Perceptions (2007)" and remains to be on "Psykerion" the two albums are quite different in sound and style. You can still hear it´s the same band playing, but Thought Chamber have developed their sound significantly in the years between the two releases. While references to acts like Dream Theater, late eighties Fates Warning (tracks like "Psykerion: The Question" and "Recoil" feature the same dark atmosphere) and at times even early Psychotic Waltz (mostly because of Ted Leonard´s voice and singing style) are valid enough, Thought Chamber incorporate a lot of progressive rock elements on "Psykerion", which they didn´t do to this extent on the debut album, which was more of a "straight" progressive metal affair. As a result "Psykerion" is quite an eclectic release featuring a successful balance between progressive metal and progressive rock elements (tracks like "Light Year Time" and "Isle of Bizen" for example feature very few metal related elements). Probably because of the shared sci-fi lyrics and imagery I can´t help mention that "Psykerion" features quite a few similarities to "ReEvolution (2013)" by Cynthesis. Another great 2013 progressive metal release.

"Psykerion" features 16 tracks and a full playing time of 63:53 minutes. Some of the tracks are shorter instrumentals, interludes or intro/outros, but the song lengths are generally around the 3 - 5 minutes mark, with only two longer tracks out of the bunch and none of those two exceed the 10 minutes mark. The whole thing is packed in a powerful and well produced sound production. At times I feel the keyboards (leads) are slightly too high in the mix, but that´s a minor issue. The organ on the other hand are placed tastefully in the mix and provide the music with a nice organic warmth.

The musicianship are on a high level. In keeping with the eclectic nature of the music you´ll be exposed to both atmospheric playing and more challenging progressive parts with fast runs and tempo- and time signature changes in "classic" progressive metal style. Lead vocalist Ted Leonard delivers a very convincing performance, but if you are already familiar with some of his previous work, that´s really no surprise. He is a greatly skilled singer with a distinct sounding voice and a personal vocal style.

"Psykerion" reeks of class all the way through. The musicianship are strong, the sound production professional and well sounding and the songwriting is intriguing and adventurous. All in all a high quality product in every way possible. A 4.5 star (90%) rating is deserved.