PRESTO BALLET — The Lost Art of Time Travel (review)

PRESTO BALLET — The Lost Art of Time Travel album cover Album · 2008 · Metal Related Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
Nightfly
Presto Ballets sound is likely to come as a bit of a surprise to anyone who knows guitarist Kurdt Vaderhoof from his other band Metal Church. Here there's an absence of the thrash metal of that band, instead Presto Ballet have a sound firmly based on seventies American progressive rock bearing a resemblance to the likes of Styx and Kansas with a bit of Deep Purple thrown in for good measure.

The Lost Art of Time Travel is their second album and very good it is too. 7 songs make up the album, 4 of them 9 minutes or longer giving ample opportunity for instrumental workouts. Presto Ballet produce a powerful yet melodic sound, the seventies authenticity helped by the production and much use being made of keyboards like Hammond organ and Melotron. The band are all great players and in Scott Albright they have found an excellent rock vocalist capable of handling the strong melodies with ease.

The album is consistently strong making it difficult to pick favourite tracks but special mention should be made of One Tragedy at a Time, a 14 minute masterpiece with swirling melotrons and Hammond organ, powerful guitar riffs and a dynamic rhythm section. It's nearly 3 minutes before the vocals come giving you an idea of the space left for instrumental interplay. Although as already stated, they produce a powerful sound, there's still room for some light and shade with plenty of changes.

This is pretty much the formula for the album which is fine with me but You're Alive adds an acoustic guitar driven interlude very much reminding me of Styx both musically and vocally and excellent it is too. Haze, which closes the album also offers some diversification being one of the other more restrained and laid back moments until an instrumental section picks things up a bit reminding me of Genesis with some Hackett style lead guitar.

This album turned out to be one of the unexpected gems of 2008 and recommended to anyone who likes their prog metal with priorities on strong melodies.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

The Goblin Sessions Heavy Metal
THEM
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tormenta De Arena Metalcore
VORAGO
Buy this album from MMA partners
Infinite Metalcore
FUTURE GHOST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Heretic Melodic Death Metal
SUNCINDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Skull Burned Wearing Hell Like A Life Vest As The Night Wept Mathcore
FRONTIERER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

OPETH`S Epic Headline Show at Bloodstock 2024 | YouTube Premiere | Full Set | August 9th, 2024
OPETH
666sharon666· 112 minutes ago
Opeth '§4' Visualizer/Lyrics Video
OPETH
666sharon666· 112 minutes ago
Future Ghost - Wolves (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Future Ghost - Nemesis Game (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Harrowed TwentyTenVideo
HARROWED
Bosh66· 3 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed