Flying Colors - Flying Colors

Take some renowned rock/metal musicians… give ‘em a pop singer… just for a change… and what do you have? Well, you’re right… you do have Flying Colors. Specifically, this project consists of: Mike Portnoy (drums, vocals), Dave LaRue (bass), Neal Morse (keyboards, vocals), Casey McPherson (lead vocals - Alpha Rev) and Steve Morse (guitar)… quite impressive don’t ya think? It started out as an idea… but soon enough it become a reality.

 

The strange thing is that the guys, due to obligations they had with their bands or other projects… finally had 9 days in the studio to write and record the album! That’s what I call being under pressure… but for such greatly skilled musicians nothing is impossible. For example “Kayla”, which is a brilliant catchy melodic prog pop/rock song, was written by the end of the first day! To close, they did record a rough version of the entire album with final drum tracks. Producer Peter Collins was responsible to gather the band’s music themes into a final arrangement. So he completed the parts and produced the album along with the engineer Michael Brauer, who did the final mix. Needless to say, that the sound is warm, clear and brilliant. It’s worth mentioning that Portnoy has taken over the lead vocal role, along with Casey, in the song “Fool in My Heart”.

 

Certainly, this album has parts of the personality of each musician… prog rock, metal, art rock, funky, pop… all those music kinds have been blended together to produce the music you hear on the album. The chemistry is really good among the members… they all have air to breathe and practice their skills and when you’re listening to the pop singer Casey… you actually think that he is indeed part of this project… he sounds like he is in his natural environment. At times you can’t help but think of some big prog rock bands like Queen, Genesis, Marillion, IQ, Spock’s Beard, Pendragon, Arena… and so on. Bear in mind, that the album sounds very fresh and not retro at all.

 

I know that many times in the past, some super groups… had been disappointing ‘cuz in the bottom line they never cared for delivering good music… but they cared more to please their ego and earn some extra bucks. This is not the case here… and I’m very glad about it… for I’ve listened to some wonderful songs such as: “Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda”, “Kayla” (my beloved one), “The Storm”, “Everything Changes”, “Better Than Walking Away” & “Infinite Fire” (pure prog rock anthem). Do not be afraid to taste these Flying Colors… for they will indeed add more color to the gloomy days we’re living at.