Released by: Gentle Art of Music

Release Date: September 22nd, 2023

Genre: Progressive Rock

Line Up:

Markus Steffen guitars
Arno Menses vocals
Martijn Horsten bass
Markus Maichel keyboards
Dirk Brand drums

Tracklist:

1. A Poetry of Rain (Instrumental)
2. The Art of Giving In
3. Marigold
4. Sliver (The Sheltered Garden)
5. Impasse
6. Embers Part II: Water Wings
7. Melencolia One
8. A Wound is a Place to let the Light in
9. The Last of its Kind
10. A Room on the Edge of Forever*

*CD only

A Poetry Of Rain is the 6th album of one of the best progressive rock/metal band around nowadays, SUBSIGNAL. The band was founded in 2008 by former SIEGES EVEN members Arno Menses (vocals) and Markus Steffen (guitars), and along the way other bandmembers came and were replaced, leading to a 2023 line up that further consists of drummer Dirk Brand, keyboardplayer Markus Maichel and bassist Martijn Horsten. Their previous studio album La Muerta was one of the best albums released in 2018, so after 5 years of waiting we have high hopes for another sensational album.

The album starts with a short intro called A Poetry Of Rain before it transforms into high class uptempo melodic progressive rock during the song The Art Of Giving In that sounds like what we are used to hear from SUBSIGNAL. This song has all the SUBSIGNAL ingredients needed to make it a great song, and sometimes it also reminds me a bit of THRESHOLD. The AOR influences shine through nicely during the following superb semi ballad Marigold, which is an abslute winner and sensational song that has some beautiful harmonyvocals in a TOTO/CHICAGO style, while also a prog version of JOURNEY could be mentioned here. Progressive Heaven is basically what we can hear during the wonderful Silver (The Sheltered Garden), which once again has the lovely SUBSIGNAL melodies during the brilliant chorus.

The album continues with Impasse, which is another sensational song, this time a bit epic and more prog rock based, with a distinctive 1970s approach, in a way reminding of classic KANSAS and STYX, also while listening to all these beautiful melodies. Next track Embers Part 2: Water Wings is a fantastic uptempo progressive AOR rocker with a brilliant catchy AOR chorus that reminds me of 3 (the 80s band formed around ROBERT BERRY) or YES circa Owner Of A Lonely Heart. The sensational high level just keeps going and going on this new SUBSIGNAL, so there’s no holding back here. Also following song Melancolia One is a great uptempo melodic progressive rocker, while A Wound Is A Place To Let The Light In is a beautiful semi ballad that once again combines the best of neo-prog and TOTOish AOR. The Last Of Its Kind is a great epic progressive rocker with a sorta SPOCK’S BEARD touch, and closing CD bonustrack A Room On The Edge Of Forever is a beautiful calmer acoustic based ballad with very strong harmonyvocals, and here the band sounds dangerously close to CHICAGO.

Concluded, SUBSIGNAL have done it again, releasing one of the finest albums of the year. A Poetry Of Rain is another masterpiece, and all I can say is that you better make sure to check out this superb band a.s.a.p. at: www.subsignalband.com because they are together with THRESHOLD belonging to the best prog bands in the past 20-25 years!

Written by: Gabor Kleinbloesem