Helmet of Gnats

Helmet of Gnats (HOG) consists of Matt Bocchino keyboards, Mark Conese drums, Chris Fox guitar and Wayne Zito bass. This is the only HOG album I've heard so I can't compare it to any other releases they may have. To me they sound like a jazz-fusion band but their website describes the music as instrumental progressive rock. The album begins with "Almost Babylon"... this immediately reminded me of Niacin with a guitar player, a very funky tune with heavy parts and a cool jazzy break with a shredding guitar lead. "Chinese Leftovers" kicks in next with another heavy syncopated beat sort of Happy the Man/Brand X sounding, very nice work by the entire band... awesome track. Next up is "Yesterday's Brain" another upbeat-syncopated tune, awesome track with a great keyboard break, wonderful bass work and awesome drumming. "Crumbs" slows the tempo down briefly and highlights some great guitar work from Chris showing a little Zappa influence, perhaps? "Lesser Beings", for me the dud of the record, is pretty much just filler with sounds and seems out of place. "Misfit Toys" returns the tempo sailing and is currently my favorite tune on the disc. The CD ends with the epic (13:05) "Chimps in Space" a little reminiscent of Chick Corea in parts but another very solid tune. All influences mentioned are quite subtle and HOG definitely have their own unique sound, so if you enjoy any of the influences mentioned you might want to give this band a listen. This album was recorded on an analog machine and it sounds great. It is also a hybrid SACD/CD disc, so the chosen few who own a SACD player can also listen to it in surround sound.

This CD has an interesting sound. It was recorded to sound like an analog album. And it doesn't hurt that the music just kicks........

I bought this CD after hearing just 1 track on the Sirius show Progressions. The track I heard was excellent, so I decided to give the disc a chance. I was not disappointed. The album is solid all the way through. Thanks to the current situation of radio and mainstream record companies, this is a band that you may never get a chance to hear. If you are an old progressive rock fan, pick this disc up.

A Helmet of Gnats has been around in various incarnations since around 1980, playing music of bands like U.K., Return to Forever, Zappa, Brand X, Happy the Man, Ponty, Focus and the Dixie Dregs along the way. You can hear the amalgamation of these bands in the unique sound of their second eponymous cd...and it is simply SUPERB! All of the band members attended Berklee College of Music at one point or another, and their pedigrees show up in the flawless chops they exhibit. Guitarist Chris Fox plays some very melodic lines with a sound that reminds me most of Allan Holdsworth and Jeff Beck in many places. Influenced by Rick Wakeman and Eddie Jobson, Matt Bocchino provides a great symphonic rock background to much of this jazz fusion, frequently favoring the organ as his weapon of choice. Bass player Wayne Zito lists Chris Squire as one of his influences, but I hear a lot of fretless bass a la Jeff Berlin and the like. And drummer Mark Conese is more on the jazz side of drumming (think Bill Bruford and Billy Cobham), but he keeps a strong, confident groove driving these songs as well. If I could fantasize an all-instrumental supergroup of Beck, Jobson, Berlin and Cobham, it would sound like this! They do not disappoint, folks - very energetic and interesting, with original and complex compositions. The 3-1/2 minute "Lesser Beings" is the only quirky/spacy track that they could have left off the album (and delighted me even more). But the rest of the album is fast-paced, melodic, fusiony, groove-driven, symphonic progressive rock bliss...and gnats a fact ;-) I value interesting music that is played and recorded well. This cd's rating was based on: Music quality = 8.6/10; Performance = 9.5/10; Production = 9/10; CD length = 10/10. Overall score weighted on my proprietary scale = 9.0 ("4-1/2 stars")

This record is one of those records that delivers exactly what i am looking for in a record; rising/falling action and a level of performance that only gets better as the record progresses. Each track has a life of it's own as well as a life within the greater context of the record. Just in the first few tracks, the band shows you what they can do, and trust me...they can do. From the very beginning, to the very end, the record shows the various types of music the band works with while truly illustrating the sound of the band itself. With multiple movements in each piece and virtuosic mastery of their instruments, helmet of gnats proves to be an outstanding progressive band that, you can tell, puts much care into the production of their music.