Artist: Birth
Album: Born
Country: USA
Publisher-label: Metal Blade Records
Release date: 2022
Genre: Psychedelic Prog Rock
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 320kbps
Duration: 00:41:32

Tracklist:
01. Born (04:48)
02. Descending Us (06:55)
03. For Yesterday (09:14)
04. Cosmic Tears (07:41)
05. Another Time (05:36)
06. Long Way Down (07:17)

Lineup:
Conor Riley / Vocals, Synthesizer, Electric Piano, Organ, Acoustic Guitar
Brian Ellis / Guitar, Electric Piano, Percussion
Trevor Mast / Bass
Paul Marrone / Drums

Birth is a band from San Diego, California that offers Progressive Rock sounds with a retro touch, excellent instrumental parts with keyboards. The debut album “Born” was released on July 15, 2022 via Bed Omen Records/Metal Blade Records and containing 6 medium-long tracks. The opening track and title track “Born” immediately plunges us into the atmosphere of the album made of intertwining retro-style keyboards and a solid and elaborate rhythmic session. The guitar offers solo inserts of fine workmanship, while the tempo changes enrich the structure of the song, which takes us back to the early 70s. Another vibrant interweaving of keyboards and guitar opens “Descending Us” which transforms into the verse taking on more symphonic features and a warm and expressive vocal. Alternating softer and heavier passages, with a long instrumental section with intense textures and refined solo passages. In the finale the vovcale returns for the last verses and the piece closes, in some passages it reminds me of the sounds of the first Uriah Heep. “For Yesterday” is the longest track of the album and exceeds 9 minutes, characterized by an intro with dark atmospheres that alternate with more symphonic openings and positive melodies. The keyboards create an excellent background on which the electric guitar is inserted, to then enter the vocal and become softer and more dreamy. If we close our eyes we are in the 70s, thanks also to vintage instruments. You continuously change tempo with intertwining solo parts in which guitar and keyboards duet, a solid and elaborate rhythm session. With a massive rhythm session with hypnotic bass lines and keyboards in evidence opens “Cosmic Tears,” more intricate in textures. The guitar is inserted for a solo passage on a mellotron background, in some changes it is more sophisticated and recalls the Jazz Prog sounds. A track that shows a more technical facet of the band’s sound, enriched by virtuosity reminiscent of the first Canterbury sounds, while maintaining the level of quality very high. An intro with arpeggios and a warm and expressive vocal opens “Another Time,” which develops slowly and on dreamy atmospheres. With the entry of all the instruments it transforms taking on a heavier character with granitic guitar riffs and npompose keyboards, alternating symphonic openings with more energetic passages. In the second patre they offer an instrumental section with Heavy Prog traits, valuable guitar and keyboard duets and the rhythm that accelerates, closing in a musical crescendo. The album ends with “Long Way Down” which combines the heaviest and most technical shades of the band giving life to a very intense and refined track. The sound is solid and enriched with continuous tempo changes, the imprinting is markedly 70s, between accelerated, symphonic openings, intense vocals and instrumental textures. This band has proposed a high-level debut album, which manages to bring back the atmosphere of the 70s in a modern context, while maintaining vintage sounds. Excellent instrumental textures, solid drumming and supporting bass lines, on which the intense vocal parts perfectly interpret the lyrics. Those who love Prog sounds cannot miss this album, an absolute masterpiece as we have not listened to for years.