COMPASS (Steve Newman) – Theory Of Tides (2022) HQ
The COMPASS story began back in December 2017 when British singer-songwriter Steve Newman decided to write a few songs that musically would step outside the barriers imposed by many years writing for his own melodic rock band Newman. This was to be something very different, liberating, both musically and lyrically, from anything he had created before, with the freedom to move across genres and not be pigeonholed within any particular musical style.
After a 2020 debut album to great acclaim by the music press and fans of both the Melodic Rock and Metal genres, Newman’s COMPASS are back with new effort “Theory Of Tides“, a very interesting eclectic mix pulling in influences from Rush, Saga, and Dream Theater through It Bites and Pink Floyd.
Steve’s vision, and indeed the rest of the band successfully realised in creating a bridge between these two genres of music; “Theory Of Tides” is a great piece of work merging melodic hard with progressive rock, and demonstrating Newman’s talent far beyond his usual AOR material.
One of the greatest compliments being that the songs could not be placed into one specific category, and that’s really captivating.
High on the momentum from the first album, and also restricted to only studio work due to the pandemic Steve set about constructing songs within a concept for this second album. “Theory Of Tides” is a concept album based on the life, works, and inner turmoil of the famous astronomer and scientist Galileo Galilei. It follows in the Compass tradition of creating mindscapes both musically and lyrically taking the listener through a journey that encompasses Galileo’s life.
“Theory Of Tides” shows that Compass are a developing band and becoming even more in tune with each other as writers and performers. The elaborated musical arrangements and production also reflect this natural evolution.
They open with the epic ‘Mountains on the Moon’, and despite 10 minutes long always keeps you interested plenty of imaginative riffs, lovely keys / synths and the melodious voice of Ben Green. It is good that Steve Newman has managed to keep some of the Newman sound as it makes this album more appealing to melodic rock fans who maybe a tad hesitant giving prog rock a go.
There’s a cool guitar / keyboard interplay on ‘The Assayer’, commercial and accessible, while midtempo semi-ballad ‘Once In A Lifetime’brings to mind 80s Rush.
Where the Dream Theater comparisons appear is on the 3-piece ‘Laws of Nature Dialogue’, dinamic and varied but overall more melodic than the Petrucci & co.”Theory Of Tides” is a complete and more than solid new Compass album, and I really enjoy seeing (and listening) Steve Newman exploring fresh musical landscapes. A pristine production and a beautiful artwork completes the picture here.
Highly Recommended
01 – Mountains on the Moon
02 – Searching for Answers
03 – The Assayer
04 – Once in a Lifetime
05 – Laws of Nature Dialogue I : Fly to the Sun
06 – Laws of Nature Dialogue II : God Only Knows
07 – Laws of Nature Dialogue III : This Pendulum Swings
08 – Theory of Tides
Steve Newman – Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards
Ben Green – Vocals
Dave Bartlett – Bass
Toni Lakush – Drums
BUY
www.amazon.com/Theory-Tides-Compass/dp/B0B52NBCYR
