Deepest Secrets Beneath / Leviathan

The prog underground is a real and thriving thing. Has been so for many years actually. It is where names such as Jacobs Dream, Ivanhoe, Elegy, Tiles and Enchant mean something. Unsung heroes toiling in metallic obscurity to a few deeply satisfied and grateful converts. These are thorough and fully developed bands with their own identities and meticulously honed sound, simply not content to pluck from their kin who've achieved mainstream appreciation; Dream Theater, King's X, Fates Warning and Queensryche or from the even more visible of the underground guard like Psychotic Waltz, Communic, Shadow Gallery or Heir Apparent. Indeed, you can't with all audio-aided honesty liken the sublime esoteric journeys of Magellan to Savatage or Dream Theater when it hearkens back more strongly to the era of Yes, Jethro Tull and Tangerine Dream than those two could ever dare to tread. Likewise, Colorado's Leviathan for all their brazen prog-power-isms are hardly the musical companions of Crimson Glory and Arch-era Fates.

What we have here is essentially a compilation of the band's entire first full length album, "Deepest Secrets Beneath" and their self titled 1991 EP. Remastering has made the sound much bigger than you'd get it on the initial releases which works in the band's favor since a large ambience has always been a big part of their multi tiered personality. There's fifteen tracks here, each sounding urgently fresh yet comfortably old. The technical glamour and grace that Leviathan expresses in oodles has never gone out of style but the peerless preening and dramatics and sheer flair for the furious over the flashy is an outdated modus operandi that many will associate with the heady days of USPM. It makes for wonderfulness aplenty but also makes room for weirdness; we have a barking vocalist who meanders relentlessly from a polished operatic delivery to plain blue-collar riot making him sound helplessly idiosyncratic like James Rivera but without the charm and Gerrit Mutz but with all the charm. There's the guitarist whose machine like riffing is given humanity by his deliberately untethered thrash-isms and his bassist whose dim lines dress the ambience giving the drummer lots of air to choke with his eternally endless polyrhythmic invocations. It is more than enough to get you marveling or to gracefully ignore.

And it seems Leviathan have been unfairly ignored for far too long. Their long career in obscurity bears a history marked with record label frustration and not enough opportunities. It also intersects with names such as Jag Panzer, The Quiet Room and Artizan. Contrary to the obscurity, they are actually quite penetrable. Despite the precision and intellectualism, they believe in big hooks and choruses. Songs like the ode to road rebels, "Speed Kills" and "The Calling" are ready staples that the power metal crowd somehow missed out on. Some of the more jangly pieces remind one more of Steel Prophet or Cauldron Born than they do of Crimson Glory but Leviathan's aim always seems to be to assert progressiveness than anthem building. Riffs change course with blistering rapidness as on "Degenerating Paradise" and what would be sing along choruses are dimmed by stealthy ejaculations as on "Confidence Not Arrogance". No truly sobby ballads exist and neither are there any chest beating Iced Earth-like angry testimonies. And yet the band are masters of some sort at crafting mood and at heightening tension.

Case in point; "Two Roads To Nowhere", true to its name, spills out like a journey, its confessions of anguish and dimming triumph unmistakable in the plaintive riffing. More than a bit of desolation lingers around the atmosphere of the bulk of the material. The lyrics are generally questioning and searching - the sorrow in "Disenchanted Dreams Of Conformity" and the learning in "Sanctuary" are easy to relate to. Frustration and guilt which social experience rewards us all with are greatly explored and there seems to be both a yearning for and departure from religion/spirituality expressed in a big chunk of the texts. It is a damn near perfect record which is something not easily expected from prog metal bands where there's always the danger of excess overwhelming the vulnerable seed of a good song.

Personally I find the somber "Disenchanted Dreams of Conformity" to be the finest thing here but they are all truly worthwhile cuts. The aforementioned song marries profundity with urgency like the tragic spilling out of time. It is every bit as lovable as Fates Warning's "Prelude To Ruin" and "Part Of The Machine" but bears a mournful desolation all its own. The harmonized guitar solo courtesy of John Lutzow adds glorious salt to the glorious wound. There's shinier gems elsewhere; "Painful Pursuit Of Passion And Purpose" seems cut from the same cloth as Dream Theater's legendary "Erotamania" and it does have the same technical charm and emotional sway, "The Falling Snow" is a dismally dramatic spiral that is bleak and haunting and "Leviathan" is a memorable epic piece in the tradition of Helstar's "Winds Of War" that is every bit as enchanting as the band for which it is named. All hail the beast of the prog underground!