what I needed anyway to cement in my head the goals and dreams that I had but at the same time to give me a glimpse of the reality of what that would entail. To come out at the other end of a year like that and be more committed to our music than ever before is a great affirmation for the band. Onward and upward!

ADRENALIN:  If you had to compare yourself to any other progressive metal band, who would it be, and why?

CHRIS: I don't think I would compare us to any progressive metal band really. We don't try to emulate any of them. We take influence from the likes of Ephel Duath, Gojira, Mastodon and maybe a little bit of Opeth but overall that's not where we look for a how-to of progressive music. This all goes back to the originality aspect of things. It's really bands like Faith No More, Led Zeppelin, Queen, and Blue Oyster Cult that we get our inspiration from. No one has ever called any of them 'prog' bands, because prog is a dirty word that connotes the sound of elves playing synths for 20 minutes. But they were massively progressive within their genres, they were song-writers, they wrote amazing songs totally independent of style…just great songs. And you do have some metal bands like Estradasphere, Farmakon, Monogono etc (sorry readers…very obscure prog-metal band references here!) mixing totally different styles, and they are all great bands but sometimes it all seems a little bit like; a

all great bands but sometimes it all seems a little bit like; a little bit of this, a little bit of that but not much to get your teeth into. All music has a place, I mean I listen to a shit load of prog-metal and love it but what they are doing just isn't what we want to do, especially not the neo-classical, power-prog crap.

ADRENALIN:  Have you had a lot of success with your label, Open Your Ears Music? Have you found other bands that are going to be on it?

CHRIS: Well it's been tough going with the label, it's not like we've ever run a label before. But the band is doing well which means that the label has done its job. In that respect, yes we have had success with the label. As we're still totally entrenched in working on Era V it will be a while yet before we can look to helping other bands out with releases but it is absolutely on the cards for the future.

ADRENALIN:  Many progressive bands are expanding their instrumental use, adding keyboards and other instruments. In looking for an additional guitarist, have you thought about expanding your sound in other ways as well??

CHRIS: We'll happily use anything, any kind of instrumentation if the song requires it, 'What Stirs Within' features synth and glockenspiel as well as a few samples, so we're not shying away from it. I don't think we're looking to introduce any permanent new sounds though. Of course,

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