Ad Astra are a Christian prog band from Florida who have been together since 2006, and Beyond Our Bounds is their debut CD. Comprised of mainly three musicians, Doug Bowers (vocals/keyboards/guitar/bass), Christopher Flynn (guitars/bass), and Mitch Rall (vocals/drums), all who met at church and decided to put a prog band together with help from guitarist Steve Spayde and their pastor Dave Hope...yes, that Dave Hope, the former bass player with Kansas. The result is Beyond Our Bounds, a smooth and silky modern melodic prog album, brimming with spiritual lyrics, tasty keyboard lines, linear guitar solos, and strong lead vocals. It's all very lush and somewhat symphonic, the band never getting too bombastic, but there's no doubt they were trying to pay homage to some of the 70's greats like Yes, Genesis, Camel, and Kansas. Most of the songs are pretty memorable, with catchy melodies and just enough proggy instrumentation to please fans of the genre. Some of the highlights are "Spirit Wars", a real juicy number with plenty of stabbing guitar and vintage sounding synths (at times almost sounding like Rocket Scientists), the lush folky prog of "All God Does", complete with pastoral acoustic guitars, flute, and rich vocal layers, and the quirky "Angle of Repose", featuring bass by Dave Hope and lots of adventurous guitar and keyboard battles.
Though the songs on Beyond Our Bounds are not nearly as complex & bombastic as some of Neal Morse's solo material, and it's safe to say that the lyrical content isn't as in your face with the religious aspect either, this no doubt will be compared to Neal's work due to the Christian connection, but Ad Astra ultimately have put together a solid modern prog album here complete with all the trimmings, one that purely stands on its own.Well done!
Track Listing
1 Liberty
2 Beyond Our Bounds
3 Fallen World
4 Spirit Wars
5 Severe Mercy
6 Ed Spence
7 All God Does
8 Angle of Repose
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