Little King were formed back in 1996 by guitarist/vocalist Ryan Rosoff and on this album the band have some heavyweight production help in the shape of Ministry bassist Eddy Garcia engineering the album and former Rush producer, Terry Brown, handling mixing.

The album is a concept piece based around an anonymous man who is moved into action after hearing about the Columbine school shootings and the impact his actions have on those around him. Musically it does have nods to Rush as you’d expect with Terry Brown involved but Little King are not a ‘classic’ progressive rock band in that they have a lot in common with modern bands like Porcupine Tree and Muse.

There is much to enjoy on here from the drumming patterns particularly on ‘All I Need’ to the big guitar riffs on ‘Narcissus And Echo’. The music has plenty of depth, which is surprising given the lack of keyboards that are used by most bands to round out and add depth to their sound.

Certainly worth checking out for the opening three tracks alone and definitely one for the discerning music fan.

***½

Review by Jason Ritchie

***** Out of this world | **** Pretty damn fine |
*** OK, approach with caution unless you are a fan |
** Instant bargain bin fodder | * Ugly. Just ugly