There's no escaping the fact that the band's name is terrible. As for the music... I can see this EP being the sort of thing that's incredibly divisive. Bands like Oceansize and Amplifier were at the forefront of a prog-rock revival of sorts, and while the latter are entirely unashamed in their obsession with UFOs and space travel, they've still managed to produce a body of work that's both proggy and contemporary. It does, of course, help that they rock, which is also true of the prog-metal brigade, as represented by bands like Isis. The advent of post-rock and the shoegaze revival have also been major factors in the spread of neo-prog in recent years.
Consequently, we shouldn't really be surprised that there are young bands out there who are producing music that's not so much neo-prog as, well, old-school progressive rock. Enter We Sell Sea Shells. They're not only prog to the core, but hell, they've even debuted with a concept EP - a trilogy in four parts (if you include the interlude).
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Some of the lyrics are deeply cringy - but probably only if you're that bit older and / or not a devout fan of C S Lewis - but musically, the compositions are carefully structured, and given to tides of guitar noise at strategic points. As such, they owe as much to post-rock contemporaries like Vessels as seminal prog-rock purveyors like Yes, and I can't fault what they do on a technical level. I just wonder what other gems of yesteryear they might plunder from their parents' record collections...
http://www.myspace.com/wesellseashellsband
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