Three

The End Is Begun
Metal Blade Records

If you took Rush, Dream Theater and Coheed & Cambria and blended them together, you might get and idea how Three sounds. Actually at times, I could swear that Coheed's vocalist Claudio was doing the singing! This progressive rock band from New York has a great sound that takes the best of the aforementioned bands and makes it all their own. There is a lot of acoustic guitar blended in with the electric and there is also a percussionist along with a drummer as well. The band steers clear of being too heavy, instead opting for a nice middle ground between the early prog rock styles of yesteryear and modern metal voicings. Don't get me wrong, there is some seriously heavy guitar on this release, but it has it's softer side as well. I heard about Three because they will touring with Dream Theater, Opeth, and Between The Buried and Me on the "Progressive Nation Tour". As a matter of fact Dream Theater's drummer Mike Portnoy hand picked Three for this very tour, so you know they have got to be good. "The End Is Begun" is definitely worth checking out if your a prog fan.

- Craig Harvey