Review by JD on July 13, 2016.

Prog rock/metal has a spot in my heart. For a musician, it shows how hard work culminates into sheer beauty of music mastery but there is another side of the prog equation – that is when prog goes seriously wrong. I have heard many of those types of albums, and the memory of them makes me cringe.

Kyrbgrinder is a band from London England, made up of Threshold member Johanne James, bassist Dave Lugay and guitarist Aaron Waddingham. On the surface, the prog legacy of Threshold continues into this side-project but that is very deceiving. Beware of what may actually be here because it might disappoint you.

I found the album to feel rather stiff. Prog usually flows as complex melodies swell and form the tapestry while the story is being told but this album does not even come close to it. It plods a bit, like a cow in a very muddy field failing to catch anything that could connect things. The band gets close on some tracks – but it never gets out of second gear. The lyrics are simple, yet impressive… one of the bright spots throughout the disk.

I do have to state that Kyrbgrinder has made a good enough album. If the band could have gotten a flow going this could have been a very impressive album. I think it was very listenable in the end but the disjointed nature of the music structures made it a difficult one. It made my decision on a rating kind of self-explanatory.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10