Album Reviews : Hope To Find – Still Constant

Despite an extremely promising beginning, Still Constant, the debut EP by Turkey’s Hope To Find finds itself wandering back and forth between genuinely creative and painfully bland. Take, for example, “Walking Walls”. After opening with an absolutely sublime piano piece dancing with soft, acoustic guitars, it breaks into some flat, stock-standard prog riffing broken up by some decent solos and horribly awkward, almost-spoken vocals. And that’s the way all four tracks work; inspired moments interspersed with filler.

Now, it largely it comes down to how much you enjoy those moments that determines how listenable the release is a whole. Finale “City Soul” has an absolutely superb, mellow solo, and the uplifting keys in “The Grand Opening” are sublime. And, when I’m in the right mood, they are well worth waiting for. But not one of the tracks manages to run at that level of quality for the whole six or seven minutes.

Dragging everything down that notch further is Zafer Yüksel’s vocals. He has his moments but on a whole, they’re quite flat and lack any captivating characteristics. At times he sounds breathless, and at others he simply doesn’t fit in with what’s happening around him. They’re certainly not bad enough to make it unlistenable, but it doesn’t do the overall sound any favours.

Still, sitting somewhere between Dream Theater and Porcupine Tree, Still Constant is bound to make an impression on at least a few prog fans, even if it’s just looking forward to seeing how they develop with their next release. 6.5/10

Band: Hope to Find
Album: Still Constant EP
Year: 2010
Genre: Progressive rock/metal
Origin: Turkey
Label: Independent
http://www.myspace.com/hopetofind

Track listing:
1. The Grand Opening
2. Walking Walls
3. Witness of Happiness
4. City Soul <- Reviewers choice