CD Review

Sylvan
 "Presets"

Rating 91%

reviewed by Charlie O'

 Presets is German proggers Sylvan's 6th album, following hot on the heels of 2006's Posthumous Silence, an epic concept album that won the band a shedload of new fans, and saw them break out of the mainland European market at last. Personally, I'm still waiting for Posthumous Silence to grab me and feel that it has it's exalted status is at least partly due to the fact that it is a concept album. Think Brave and Subterranea, both poor in my eyes yet loved due to their 'conceptualnessiticity'.

So anyway, enough whinging about past albums, onto Presets. How does that fair? Well, I like it more and that's for sure. A lot more.

Obviously as it's not a concept album it's more song based and varied, but from the opener One Step Beyond - not the Madness song - through to the final track, the epic and eponymous Presets, the album reeks of class.

Standout tracks are the aforementioned One Step Beyond and Presets as well as the A-Ha like For One Day and my personal favourites Former Life and Transitory Times,

The band have melded their former progressiveness with a commercial sound, yet keep their own personality intact.

Top album!

Sylvan are currently supporting countrymates Blind Ego around Europe. See them at:

Thursday May 10th 2007 - Schwimmbad Music Club, Heidelberg, Germany
Saturday May 12th 2007 - de Boerderij, Zoetermeer, Netherlands
Sunday May 13th 2007 - Zentrum Altenberg, Oberhausen, Germany
Friday July 13th 2007 - Art Rock Festival, Reichenbach, Germany
Saturday July 21st 2007 - Night of the prog festival 2007, Loreley, Germany
Friday November 9th 2007 - pROCKfest 2007, Bünde, Germany