F5 PRESS AND MEDIA

- F5 CD Review at : http://www.chedsey.com Dawn of a New Age - 2000 - Vortex Records Imagine this scenario. Projekt Records has several of their darkwave and ambient oriented artist busy recording in the studio when suddenly tw of the members of Fear Factory burst in, demanding studio time. A tussl ensues but luckily the vicious Projekt Records musicians are able to contain th Fear Factory boys and eventually a compromise is reached. That compromise, if you can imagine one, seemingly has been realized by F5, a South Carolina hybrid of heavy metal and an electronic/ambient style of music. F5 is a duo and if one were to judge solely by the CD art, you might think it's some guitar wizard showoff release, but that's very far from the truth. Chris Rifkin, the man behind the initial impetus of the project, handles all the instrumentation, ranging from guitar to keyboards and drum programming. According to the band's website, Rifkin discovered vocalist Leanne Serao singing along to her radio at her work and thus, the creative union was forged. Much of F5's music is a bit of a juxtaposition of trancelike, serene, drawn-out keyboard waves layered with crunchy, rhythmic and heavy guitars. Over all of this floats Serao's soothing, airy voice. Some of the material reminds me slightly of latter-day Hawkwind ambience, while at other times the backdrop reminds of the same approach Love Spirals Downwards used on 1998's Flux. The guitars constantly provide a healthy amount of grit and crunch using staccatto rhythms that seemed to often be associated with Fear Factory. However, unlike Fear Factory, Rifkin is not afraid to have leads and solos as well. The songs all contain a certain flair for melodic memorability, particularly "You Don't Know Me". (As an amusing sidenote, the radio edit version of that song features a sudden dropout and Macintosh "Quack" noise at 2:03. Apparently Rifkin's computer felt the need to be involved in the music as well.)   Dawn of a New Age is a surprising and highly enjoyable first release from this duo. With any luck their creative juices will continue to flow on future releases and metal can have their own version of Love Spirals Downwards. Review by John Chedsey - 9/01     CD Review at Metal Reviews.com I have yet to hear of more than a handful of metal bands that incorporate electronic / techno influences into their sound and being successful with it. Actually, until now, only Labyrinth has pulled it off without sounding forced, cheesey, or having the music end up as some big jumbled mess. F5 is spearheaded by Chris Rifkin, who plays guitar, keyboards, and drum programming, while the vocals are provided by one Leann Serao, takes this challenge and to my surprise, they too have managed to create a highly enjoyable meld of electronic music and heavy metal.   The songs on Dawn of a New Age range from the slow and brooding to outright speed metal and in between there are a number of midtempo, driving metal numbers that pulse with a harsh energy. Starting off with the title track, I am greeted with somber, melancholic singing from Leann for the first two minutes or so with ambient keyboards going off in the background. After setting this mood of emptiness, or anticipation if I relate the passage to the song title itself, the keyboards begin to build up and when the guitars and drums kick in the music explodes into a solid heavy metal tune reminiscent of the Awake album from Dream Theater. One complaint I do have about this killer track is that after the heaviness breaks in, the singing goes into a barely audible, almost talked kind of thing, and just a few words here and there. If there were some actual singing with some nice vocal melodies over this section than it would have increased the killing factor of this track by tenfold. You Don't Know Me could be confused with a classic metal song from the 80's if it weren't for the electronic beats that go through the whole of the track. The soulful singing really reminds me of old school metal bands, names don't come to me because it manages to capture the spirit of those times, not one particular band. A pure speed track checks in with us later in the disc, Come Into the Light. Never letting up it has a great riff and a killer beat to it. I am also personally fond of the piano that is used to augment the chord progressions. The epic song of the album, Eye of the Storm is my favorite here. For the first few minutes again there is just some ambient sounds from the keyboards before going into a mid paced drive with Leann's best vocal performance coming in as well. Dawn of a New Age is a bold album in today's metal world. Ever since hearing Labyrinth several years ago I have been wanting to hear another heavy metal meets electro album. Granted, F5 are not in the same top leagu as Labyrinth the comparisons are justifiable. I'm glad that a band like this has the guts to step up and deliver something different than what we have heard a thousand times before.     Review of F5 - "Dawn of a New Age" - Written by Steve Husk I showed up at the last day of Powermad 2000 with just enough money in my pocket to get me home. Judging by the inactivity around the vendor tables, I obviously wasn't the only one who exhausted his weekend cash supply on CDs one day too early. In between sets, I was hanging around by the back tables, and was approached by a guy wearing a white Minnesota Vikings jersey, and carrying a small boom box. He introduced himself as Chris, and asked me if I'd like to listen to some tracks from his band's debut album. Discovering new music was exactly why I was in Baltimore that weekend, so I was happy to check out his tunes. Chris queued to a particular point on the first track, then said something to the effect of: "...this song separates the men from the boys," and hit the PLAY button. To this day, I'm still attempting to describe the flash of light and the tremor that went off in my head. The pace of the crushingly heavy guitar riff was well into thrash territory, but in the forefront of the mix was a thick wave of electronica-esque keyboard programming. What I was hearing should have struck me as contradictory, especially when all of it was being paced by double-bass-intensive drum machine programming, but instead I was impressed with how these radically different components were crafted together. After a few measures of the guitar hurtling anvils at my skull and the keyboard programming reaching in through my ears and picking my brain to pieces, an angel began to sing.   Another mismatched component that Chris blended together! I was impressed enough with just this one track to buy the CD. That's when I broke the bad cash supply news to Chris. He handed me a business card from the on-line vendor company, CD Baby. Shortly thereafter, I had "Dawn of a New Age" in my hands. And, shortly after that, my real education as to Chris Rifkin's capabilities began. First off, Chris performed all the music himself (with one or two exceptions, most notably a killer guitar solo at the end of "Eye of the Storm" by Scott Mosher), which means he gets all the credit for piecing together these miss-matched components to construct such an original sound. Additionally, on the more melodic songs, where the seemingly logical move would be to subdue the guitar tones, Chris instead found a way to add some variation of his signature crunch assault sound. Consequently, where I would normally risk carpal tunnel syndrome by repeatedly hitting the 'skip' button, this album can play straight through without causing me to lose my intensity buzz. Actually, with the vocal talents of Leann Serao, I sometimes don't even notice the music. Leann is a better vocal talent than the huge majority of women clogging up the airwaves these days, and can conjure states of being with her tones and inflections that enhance her lyrics. Her delivery of the "Eye of the Storm" line: "...so quiet...so peaceful..." convinced my body to go from a ball of tenseness to a lounging relaxation (too bad I was driving when I first heard it). In "It's All In Your Mind," a song that offers encouragement for those being overrun by the hardships of life, her voice comes across as sincerely concerned, and a heluva lot more believable than anybody I've seen on any of those self-help infomercials. And, just for fun, in the song "You Don't Know Me," she goes from sensual and flirty, to copping an attitude, and back again, to the point where a male listener will more than likely figure out just how far out of his league he really is in dealing with her. Soon after the hall doors were opened on the first day of Powermad 2001, Chris had his CD player hooked up and copies of "Dawn of a New Age" in hand. With everyone's weekend supply of spending money still ATM-fresh, Chris' sales were much better that year. I'm thinking that, if the way Chris learned and evolved in the business aspect of his craft is any indication of how he approaches his music, the F5 sophomore release is going to do so much more than just set off detonations inside peoples' heads. - F5 CD Review at: http://www.mindcage.com/edge/e16/r16prog1.htm#F5DawnofaNewAge F5 Dawn of a New Age Vortex Records The F5 sound lies somewhere between ambient new age, thrash, and purepop music. When the music soars, it's incredible. With sweeping keyboard ambiance, intensely fastriffs, trancy guitar lines, effective (though programmed) percussion, and the mid-range singing of LeannSeraro hazily floating amid it all, the music is really quite powerful. The central problem of the albumbecomes apparent in the slower parts; the keyboard lines are often too bright and synthetic sounding,and the pop influences are far too saccharine for my tastes. The music's strength rests in the subtleambiance and floating quality of the vocals in the speedier sections of the music. Leann's voice is quiteeffective, with poppy silkiness and a soulful lower range, and is best used in the music's moretrance-inducing parts. Her vocals are less convincing in the music's more contrived pop sections, but this isprobably more because of the production (which often over-emphasizes her voice) than her actualperformance. The compositional style of Chris Rifkin (the project's one and only composer) is quiteoriginal. His better songs have a dense, aquatic quality, incredibly heavy and flowing. With better song-writingand an improved use of keyboards, F5 could really take off. (JS) [http://www.mindspring.com/~ninja/f5.html] [ninja@mindspring.com] 3 1/4 - F5 Review at EUPHONY Magazine: http://www.euphonymag.com/2002-2/logan10.htm I have to admit that when I first saw the cover of this CD, I was pretty skeptical. I mean, a space-agey cover, with the title Dawn Of A New Age? What kind of pretentious prog-rock crap is this? Admittedly, the woman on the cover, singer Leann Serao, is very pretty, but if there's one thing I've learned in this lifetime, it's that beauty is only skin-deep. Add on the other adage, "you can't judge a book (or CD) by it's cover". The progressive angle is well-established; imagine Metallica recording an album with Enya, with jazzy, new-ageist Kitaro producing and playing the keyboards. Sound intriguing? It plays even better, because Ms. Serao and her bandmate, guitarist/keyboardist/producer Chris Rifkin add something that most prog-rockers tend to forget when making symphonic examples of masterbatory exhibition: actual melody and songwriting! And what songs! Standout tracks include the wonderful bitchfest of a single "You Don't Know Me", the thrashingly-beautiful "Come Into the Light", "It's All in Your Mind"; and, if the haunting chords of "The Silence" don't stick in your cranium enough to make you keep punching the "Repeat" button on your CD player, you must be dead, in a coma, or just plain tone-deaf. Many thanks to F5 for restoring my faith that there's still good music out there that sometimes (unfortunately) remains undiscovered.   - F5 CD Review at : http://www.transcendingthemundane.com F5 (91) Dawn of a New Age. Yes indeed it is. The duo of vocalist Leann Serao and guitarist/ keyboardist Chris Rifkin have created a totally original sound with F5. Somehow they have combined influences from Enya to Fear Factory and made it all work. The opening title track has Fear Factory style riffing with a rapid fire drum machine and Leann's hypnotic, dreamy, ethereal vocals over top. The unusual combination actually works. One of the real gems is "You don't know me". The futuristic pop vibe, with spacey keyboards augments Leann's best, most passionate singing on the disc. As Dawn of a New age progresses it becomes more apparent that an ambient vibe is important to F5. "Inspired Kingdom" takes ideas presented on the first track but expands them. "The Silence" is a melancholic ballad, but F5 kick in again on "Come into the light". Dawn of a New Age is a debut that is daring and unprecedented. The two performers are talented and do an amazing job integrating their eclectic tastes into an identifyable yet diverse sound.   - F5 CD Review at : http://members.aol.com/mtldreams/F5.html Score: 3 out of 5 Battle-Axes + This disc struck me as being very odd to say the least, but after giving it a good listen I came to the conclusion that Chris Rifkin (guitars, keyboards, synths and programming) and Leann Serao (vocals) weren't trying to follow any established style. Imagine a mix of modern metal, progressive metal, 80s synth pop, and ambient tones, and you'll understand the F5 sound. Serao's beautifully angelic voice, which is similar to Berlin's Terri Nunn, is the complete opposite of the metallic Rifkin, and on paper their opposite styles don't belong together. But for some reason it all works. Some songs (ie. "The Silence") are keyboard-based pop, and are very similar to what The Gathering has gained notoriety for. But while The Gathering bore the crap out of me because they never deliver something heavy, F5 has a guitar edge on many of the songs. This material definitely isn't for everybody, and the programmed drumming gives the music a synthetic sound, but if you're looking for something that hasn't really been done before, F5 is an interesting listen. (Chris Dugan) - F5 CD Review at : http://www.psychic-rebel.com F5 is more of a new age style of music but with some interesting twists and turns. Dawn of A New Age begins with sounds of ocean and or wind and a very angelic voice the some electronic drums join in and would be a great song to kick back close your eyes and drift to the sound of the music. You Don't Know Me has more of a metal feel to the music courtesy of the guitar work of Chris Rifkin. Inspired Kingdom goes back into the new age style of music combined with metal guitars and has a very surreal feel to the music if you let yourself drift away into it. The Silence begins with some very soft keyboards and the sound of birds singing along with Leann Serano's angelic vocals. For something a little different and moody check out this release.   - F5 CD Review at : http://www.progressiveworld.com Reviewed by: courtesy Larry Daglieri, May 2001 A few years ago, I got my hands on a disc called Eye of the Storm. The project was the creation of guitarist Chris Rifkin, who sought to unite the progressive sound with a combination of techno instruments and a New Age sound. He threw in a vocalist who sounded a lot like Geoff Tate, and the result was definitely something different in the realm of progressive music. Not many people were able to listen to this disc, much less find it, and it has become somewhat of a hunted disc.   A few years later Chris has returned with a new project called F5, and this time has replaced his male singer with a female singer. Her name is Leann Serao, and she has a somewhat pop rock style voice, with a sweet melodic croon. She has written most, if not all of the lyrics on the disc, while Chris has played and programmed most of the other instruments on the disc, except for some bass parts here and there played by other musicians. The disc is a combination of techno dance music, combined with swirling New Age synthesizers, crooning melodic pop style vocals, with a dose of crunchy guitars all injected with progressive elements. It does make for quite an unusual, although interesting piece of music. Without experiencing the music, most prog heads will dismiss it based on the words 'techno' or 'new age' placed in this review, and maybe rightly so. There is no denying that the different combinations of music and styles make for a unique listening experience, and those looking for that something 'different' should at least make an effort to check this one out and make the judgement for yourself. In all honesty, it probably won't appeal to metal heads, but it will appeal to those looking to spice up their progressive music life. The production is stellar -- however, if you are not into programmed instruments, drum machines, sound effects, swirling synths, and some techno-style music, this will definitely not be your cup of tea. All instruments come out of your system with a crystal clean soundÉÉand the vocals are as equally produced, with an added eeriness to Leann's voice making this a super sounding disc.   Overall, those of you who use the word 'progressive' as an attitude more than describing a genre should check this one out just to hear that someone out there is doing something different in the music world. Those of you who use the word 'progressive' as a word that describes a genre and a style of music and are committed to the metal or rock specifications that make the genre special will want to avoid this one. There is no denying that this is a different style of music than we are used to, or anyone for that matter. Hats off to Chris Rifkin for taking the chance, and he does this extremely well for a newborn, hybrid style of what we call progressive music. The disc is well played, sounds great, contains haunting / captivating vocals, and still contains that beloved guitar crunch we all know and love. It definitely fits into the progressive music genre, and if this hybrid of music sounds at all intriguing to you, it's well worth checking out.   - F5 CD Review at : http://www.lasertrax.com/band/f5.shtml F5 is more of a new age style of music but with some interesting twists and turns. Dawn of a New Age begines with the sounds of ocean and/or wind and a very angelic voice. The electronic drums join in and would be a great song to kick back, close your eyes, and drift to the sound of the music. You Don't Know Me has more of a metal feel to the music courtesy of the guitar work of Chris Rifkin. Inspired Kingdom goes back into the new age style of music combined with metal guitars, and has a very surreal feel to the music if you let yourself drift away into it. The Silence begins with some very soft keyboards and the sound of birds singing along with Leann Sereo's angelic vocals. For something a little different and moody, check out this release.   - F5 CD Review at : http://www.friday the thirteenth.com Some of you won't even know about this project, well it is Chris Rafkin's new CD. Chris released a great progressive Cd under the name of 'Eye Of The Storm' which was a real treat for fans of Heir Apparent' and early 'Queensryche'. This time around, Chris has gone a step forward by releasing a more aggressive CD in the vein of 'Fear Factory', 'Machine Head' etc.. style. As always Chris play's the guitars, bass and programming with the help of some friends on certain trax. Lead vocals are handled by Leann Serad, who has a great voice, sweet but beautiful, believe it or not this seems to fit the music well. 10 trax here, well produced which sound appealing to the hard edge fans. I prefer ''Eye Of The Storm', so come on Chris let's have another 'Eye Of The Storm' album please. Check out: 'Dawn Of A New Age', 'You Don't Know Me', 'The Silence', 'COme Into The Light', 'It's All In The Mind'.   - F5 at LASERTRAX: http://www.lasertrax.com/band/f5.shtml Dawn of a New Age - Vortex 2000 Ambient yet incredibly violent at times soundscapes with soaring female vocals. A totally unique sonic experience.   - F5 at CD BABY: http://www.cdbaby.com/view/f5 1 - f5 combines the violence and agression of today's modern thrash/metal with the rich and beautiful ambient soundscapes of new age and trance. Add in the often moving and soaring vocals of Leann Serao, you end up with one of the most unique sonic experiences in today's music.   2- (From RAY) This album has been a long time in coming. In the sense that the progressive metal genre, along with the trance genre, has been looking for an album just like this to break the mold. F5 takes progressive thrash elements and merges them into a new age trance settting; and they do it correctly! With one of the best female singers I've heard this side of goth/prog and tasty chord's and guitar driven rhythms...F5 is at the head of the pack in this fusion--a long overdue fusion. HIGHEST recommendation!   3 - (From ADAM) My roommate told me about the artist. When he told me it was a combination of New Age and Heavy Metal, I was skeptical. I like both those forms of music (along with a variety of others), but I didn't think combining the two genres would work aesthetically. But I listened to the CD and I really loved what I heard. I've never heard such an imaginative combination of thrash, new age, and techno-synth. Chris Rifkin's guitar playing and musical arrangements are out of this world. And Leann Serao's beautiful and seductive vocals enchanted me. I can't wait for a second album.   - F5 at THE ORCHARD: http://www.theorchard.com/showartist.cfm?artist_id=ef51 Aminent, new age thrash metal (fear factory, pantera, enya, sade, enigma, prong, etc...) with beautiful female vocals. For MP3 samples go to www.mindspring.com/~ninja/f5html Artist ID: ef51 * Home Page: www.mindspring.com/~ninja/f5.html   - F5 on the PERPETUAL MOTION BOARD: http://www.mindcage.com/wwwboard/wwwboard.html A few years ago, I got my hands on a disc called "Eye of the Storm". Theproject was the creation of guitarist Chris Rifkin, who sought to unitetheprogressive sound with a combination of techno instruments and a New Agesound. He threw in a vocalist who sounded a lot like Geoff Tate, and the result was definitely something different in the realm of progressivemusic. Not many people were able to listen to this disc, much less findit, and ithas become somewhat of a hunted disc. A few years later Chris has returned with a new project called F5, andthis time has replaced his male singer with a female singer. Her name is Leann Serao, and she has a somewhat pop rock style voice, with a sweetmelodic croon. She has written most, if not all of the lyrics on thedisc, whileChris has played and programmed most of the other instruments on thedisc, except for some bass parts here and there played by othermusicians. The disc is a combination of techno dance music, combined with swirlingNew Age synthesizers, crooning melodic pop style vocals, with a dose ofcrunchy guitars all injected with progressive elements. It does make forquite an unusual, although interesting piece of music. Withoutexperiencingthe music, most prog heads will dismiss it based on the words "techno"or "new age" placed in this review, and maybe rightly so. There is nodenyingthat the different combinations of music and styles make for a uniquelistening experience, and those looking for that something "different"should atleast make an effort to check this one out and make the judgement foryourself. In all honesty, it probably won't appeal to metal heads, butit willappeal to those looking to spice up their progressive music life. The production is stellar -- however, if you are not into programmedinstruments, drum machines, sound effects, swirling synths, and sometechno-style music, this will definitely not be your cup of tea. Allinstruments come out of your system with a crystal clean soundand thevocals areas equally produced, with an added eeriness to Leann's voice making thisa super sounding disc. Overall, those of you who use the word "progressive" as an attitude morethan describing a genre should check this one out just to hear thatsomeone out there is doing something different in the music world. Thoseof you who use the word "progressive" as a word that describes a genreand a style of music and are committed to the metal or rock specifications that make the genre special will want to avoid this one.There is no denyingthat this is a different style of music than we are used to, or anyonefor that matter. Hats off to Chris Rifkin for taking the chance, and hedoes thisextremely well for a newborn, hybrid style of what we call progressivemusic.   The disc is well played, sounds great, contains haunting /captivatingvocals, and still contains that beloved guitar crunch we all know andlove. It definitely fits into the progressive music genre, and if thishybrid of musicsounds at all intriguing to you, it's well worth checking out. Email Chris Rifkin > ninja@mindspring.com or web sitewww.mindspring/com~ninja/f5.html - Larry D   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   I'm a progressive fan myself and love this disc. Listen to it at leastonce a week. Great guitar tracks, crunchy and cool. Leann sounds superb!This isdefinitely a disc worth having in your collection! - RowenPersephone's Dream (p.s. ok ok, so maybe I'm biased - I do like female vocals fronting progmusic! ;)   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   I had the pleasure of attending the Prog/Power fest this past weekend. While I thououghly enjoyed all the bands(Pain of Salvation, Symphony x and Zero Hour being my favorites)and picked up quite a few CDs(spent over $250,ouch),I stumbled upon a CD by a band called F5(bought it from their guitarist Chris Rifkin,thanks dude.) Simply put the CD entitled "Dawn of a New Age" is incredible. Words alone cannot describe F5's music(but I'll give it a shot) The band consists of 2 people, Guitarist/keyboardist/programer Chris Rifkin and the stunningly beautiful Leann Serao is the vocalist. The music could best be described as peaceful/angellic/metal with female vocals.There is nothing out that sounds anything like this release(Maybee a heavier more metal version of the Gathering?) From beginning to end this CD is great.The opening title track best sums up the style of this CD.It starts of with Leann peacefully singing over wind and new age like synths.The song slowly builds until all of a sudden you are engulfed in a swirling thrashing violent wall of sound complete with blastbeats and incredibly heavy guitars.On top of this wall of sound,Leann's peaceful vocals and the almost trance-like synths mix in to create a sound not ever heard by these ears before(Stunningly beautiful/violent metal?). Throughout the CD,Chris displays a heavy,at times shredding(at times reminding me of John Petrucci of dream theater)but always tasty guitar style. Leann has a vocal style that is more of a top 40,almost R&B direction than a rock style(very refreshing,no Joplin cloning here) By Far,the find of Prog/Power,the best CD purchase I made. I recomend everyone out there to somehow get a hold of this. P.S.I have to thank Chris for selling me this C.D   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   I got to listen to a couple of tracks in passing and they sounded really intriguing. The production was kind of raw (especially the guitars) but that's to be forgiven on an independent release, and like I said I didn't get a really good listen. I kind of wish I had picked this up now after reading your thoughts. Ask Powerfreak what he thinks.   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   I picked up a copy of this CD at Powermad last year,and it is still one of my favorite disks from the past year.I kind of like the raw production of the guitars.It gives the sound a more angry,in your face vibe(a la Pantera).The only CD that has a sound somewhat comparable to F5 would be the new Quiet Room CD(Reconcieve,which I also like)in their heavier moments with a female vocalist.Otherwise, this is a one of a kind sound. P.S.any tour info on F5?   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   Something as like as much as Brave - Waist Deep in Dark Waters . F5 is GREAT ! I've seen a lot of posts here about this. I just got it last weekend. It's da bomb ! It's heavy, progressive, keyboardy, moody, driving music, with beee uuu tee full female vocals. The one downfall is this is a project band so I don't think we can see them live ! This is a no brainer for fans of everything from Lana Lane to Dreams of Sanity. Chris and Leann are extremely talented, and compliment one another in every song. Highly recommended. I can't stop listening to it. dweeb...this one's for you ! Peace. RBH   ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   A few years ago, I got my hands on a disc called "Eye of the Storm". The project was the creation of guitarist Chris Rifkin, who sought to unite the progressive sound with a combination of techno instruments and a New Age sound. He threw in a vocalist who sounded a lot like Geoff Tate, and the result was definitely something different in the realm of progressive music. Not many people were able to listen to this disc, much less find it, and it has become somewhat of a hunted disc.   A few years later Chris has returned with a new project called F5, and this time has replaced his male singer with a female singer. Her name is Leann Serao, and she has a somewhat pop rock style voice, with a sweet melodic croon. She has written most, if not all of the lyrics on the disc, while Chris has played and programmed most of the other instruments on the disc, except for some bass parts here and there played by other musicians. The disc is a combination of techno dance music, combined with swirling New Age synthesizers, crooning melodic pop style vocals, with a dose of crunchy guitars all injected with progressive elements. It does make for quite an unusual, although interesting piece of music. Without experiencing the music, most prog heads will dismiss it based on the words "techno" or "new age" placed in this review, and maybe rightly so. There is no denying that the different combinations of music and styles make for a unique listening experience, and those looking for that something "different" should at least make an effort to check this one out and make the judgement for yourself. In all honesty, it probably won't appeal to metal heads, but it will appeal to those looking to spice up their progressive music life.   The production is stellar -- however, if you are not into programmed instruments, drum machines, sound effects, swirling synths, and some techno-style music, this will definitely not be your cup of tea. All instruments come out of your system with a crystal clean soundand the vocals are as equally produced, with an added eeriness to Leann's voice making this a super sounding disc.   Overall, those of you who use the word "progressive" as an attitude more than describing a genre should check this one out just to hear that someone out there is doing something different in the music world. Those of you who use the word "progressive" as a word that describes a genre and a style of music and are committed to the metal or rock specifications that make the genre special will want to avoid this one. There is no denying that this is a different style of music than we are used to, or anyone for that matter. Hats off to Chris Rifkin for taking the chance, and he does this extremely well for a newborn, hybrid style of what we call progressive music. The disc is well played, sounds great, contains haunting / captivating vocals, and still contains that beloved guitar crunch we all know and love. It definitely fits into the progressive music genre, and if this hybrid of music sounds at all intriguing to you, it's well worth checking out.