Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

There are times when only the truth that Progressive Rock holds in its soul is enough to fill the void left by all that flutters past and refuses to enlighten your being, shaking their heads as if avoiding the disappointment they offer and the realisation that they hold little or no substance. In the art of the Progressive, the ability to tell a continuing story is one that is lauded, hoped for, it may be Stranger Than Fiction but it is a tale that encompasses the very best of imagination, dedication and concentration, as well as being an art form in itself.

For Nth Ascension the realisation that life is arguably Stranger Than Fiction comes hand in hand with building the story up from the bare bones, not content with seeing the flesh cover the budding being, but one that can be seen to enjoy inhaling the night air as it surrounds itself with glory, the clothes of a resplendent King, the robes of the poor beggar, any value is welcome as long as it keeps the story flowing and the listener gripped with fascination.

In Michael Alan Taylor, Darrel Treece-Birch, Craig Walker, Gavin Walker and Martin Walker expansion is most certainly the key, one on which to push the music forward, to see it as a course of rapidly administered injections in the vein of hope of the listener, one in which whether the fluid of reinvention or the memory of a song yet to be thrashed out and clothed appropriately, will be the stand out figure that gently smiles as the tale is told. You cannot after all be immersed into the Progressive if you are not willing to put your trust in the organic to begin with, and that is the essence of the band, one unafraid to explore, one who knows full well that that life is a story, not a soundbite.

What is Stranger Than Fiction other than absolute truth, and across the board this latest album is one in which sees the mind open further, peeling back the layers of resistance and witnessing a birth of natural order. These are not just songs, too flippant a sentence of description, they are monuments, granite tight testaments to the genre and in True Identity, Reconciled, Journey’s End and Lament, Nth Ascension that genre is bold, understanding and boundless, a series of compassionate notes placed in such a way that they pierce the heart, leaving room for the beauty to show as blood on the Progressive torso.

Unimaginably excellent, what is Stranger Than Fiction, only the truth.

Ian D. Hall