I am not the only Arcane fan around, and many people have obviously had similar experiences of this band. The launch of Ashes drew a record crowd to Brisbane's alternative music venue Club Phoenix, and the album has already attracted some praise from overseas fans.

Arcane are a five-piece prog-rock-metal-the-idea-of-genre-labels-is-becoming-
more-pointless-every-day-especially-with-bands-like-this outfit from Brisbane, influenced by bands in that sphere, particularly Dream Theater. But make no mistake, they're not Dream Theater, they're Arcane. They've taken a few pages from the book of the prog kings, but they've definitely written their own.

The element of this album that made the first big impression on me was Jim Grey's voice. It is a delicious blend of Maynard James Keenan, Clint Boge, Jeff Buckley, and... Jim Grey. The album is full of absolutely beautiful, sublime moments thanks to him. He is also the band's chief lyric writer.

Ashes is predominantly an inspiring musical journey. Opener "Desolace" begins with some pure Grey-gorian enchantment. The track flows quite naturally from this point on, through an iconic chorus, an impressive musical interlude and a powerful climax, with plenty of colourful vibes to be enjoyed. A very appropriate choice for a first track, it decisively states what Arcane are about and what the listener is in for.

"Dawn" is a five-part science fiction tale questioning human nature, and also flows remarkably smoothly through its shifting musical stages. It has even more to offer than the first track in both vibe and diversity. Key changes and tempo changes frequently take the music in quite an unexpected direction, but never feel forced, out of place or meaningless. The "infinite cracks in the mechanical monolith" hook manages to be probably the catchiest part of the track, even though it's barely a melody.

"Fulcrum" again has a progressing structure, and again, keeps you engaged every step of the way. This is perhaps the strongest and most well constructed song on the album, and also perhaps the hardest rocking. It's an extremely sharp and powerful composition. There are a number of amazing moments when the band moves into a new section, and the track never lets up.

The title track is the three-part, 24-minute centrepiece of the album, and is every bit as epic as it endeavours to be. Rather than taking the approach of using different parts altogether, which is generally done on the previous tracks, the music of "Ashes" focuses on varying a number of central themes throughout its course. The music of this opus fits very well with the lyrics, mostly creating a serious, mournful and often very moving atmosphere, which increases as the work develops. It travels through a few different vibes, from darkish rock to minor pop ballad to some more Grey magic, and interestingly, there is a considerable amount of music in the track which is quite reminiscent of Deep Purple in certain ways.

The closing section, which features the most iconic line of the album, "once was a girl, her name was Ashes", combined with lyrics from earlier in the story and music that perfectly and passionately ends the tale, is undoubtedly the emotional highlight of the album. Boyd Potts and Rowena Specht-Whyte (from Brisbane bands 'neath and never, respectively) make guest vocal appearances on this track, which provide an additional fraction of a glimpse of the exciting musical happenings of that city.

The final track, "Memory Awaits", consists only of piano and vocals and is a departure from the long tracks and progressive journeying of the rest of the album. Once again Grey works his magic as this ballad shifts fluidly between contemplative melancholy and uplifting peace to end the record beautifully.

The one gripe I have with the album is the slight lack of tightness in the performance itself. The nature of Arcane's music calls for an extremely tight band, and they do not entirely fulfill this calling. They are all very good players, but not always the tightest as a group. There are examples of marginally sloppy playing, musicians not 100% locked in with each other, and other such things that tend to occur in bands who aren't the absolute tightest in the world. But while there are flaws in the performance on the album, this is a fairly minor problem in the grand scheme of things, and it will absolutely not "ruin the album". To put it in relative terms, a substantial amount of the playing on Ashes is noticeably tighter than on Pelican's City Of Echoes or Opeth's Orchid, for example.

The main thing which makes this album and this band great is the flow and progression of the music. Arcane are worthy craftsmen of what is literally "progressive music", and they are not that far below the calibre of bands like Opeth and Porcupine Tree in the area of music writing. They have the ability to make their music evolve, progress and travel through changing environments and seasons in such a coherent way. This is why they can compose such long tracks without being boring or repetitive.

Ashes is an album that has instant impact on first hearing, but also rewards the listener very generously for taking the time to revisit it. It is a solid and exciting debut from a band that undeniably has something very special.

Ashes is available through all major music retailers across Australia through Green Media Distribution and on iTunes worldwide.