Band: Signs of One

CD Title: “Innerlands”

Label: Unicorn Digital

Label Website: www.unicorndigital.com

Release Date: 2008

When it comes to Canadian progressive rock the place to be is the province of Quebec. It’s been that way since the late sixties. There is obviously something in the water. And now there’s another band to add to the list called Signs of One, a quintet from Quebec City who’ve just released a new CD entitled Innerlands. And it’s quite a captivating disc.

The band’s origins go back to 1997 when they called themselves Hannibal and were mostly playing covers of Rush, Radiohead and the Ramones. Changes in personnel and musical direction led to adopting the name Signs of One in 1999 and re-focusing their musical talents to create progressive rock. The band consists of David Schram (vocals), Steeve Tremblay (guitars, vocals), Dan Gagnon (bass, vocals), Yannick Lapointe (keyboards, guitar, vocals) and Phil Prince (drums, percussion). This is the bands second CD, their first entitled Here and There, Now and Then was released in 2003 independently. The new disc Innerlands is a 70-minute concept piece made up of 14 parts but plays almost like a single piece of music. It’s about a guy who get’s caught up in a fantasy world that becomes a journey of self discovery and heroism. Fascinating stuff.

My first impression listening to Innerlands was a touch of Mars Volta with a fair bit of Queen influences going on here. But now after a half dozen spins through the disc, I hear a lot more than that. There are a couple of tracks where those two band’s style influence the general tone, but for the most part Signs of One have their own very original sound style. With a dedicated vocalist with a mid-tenor range and three others helping vocals there are times where a big Queen vocal arrangement surfaces such as in “Rainbow Elves” (5:09). The music itself displays an art rock sensibility with upbeat symphonic flourishes. The compositions come in a wide variety of lengths from 1:30 musical intros or bridges to three tracks around the 8-minute mark. But even in the shorter pieces the compositions go through a wide variety of changes in time, tempo, texture and mood. Remember this is a concept disc so there is a story that the music supports, but that being said, there are plenty of musical interludes and solos allowing the musicianship to shine through. When the band takes a more aggressive stance such as in “Remember” (7:48), the music becomes more symphonic all the while avoiding a prog metal approach and blending the crunchy guitar into a grander majestic effect. Then half way through the band changes this song completely turning it into more of a melodic anthem. On the surface some of the tracks display a deceptive accessibility and yet upon further listen one discovers an intriguing complexity, especially as far the arrangements are concerned. A similar approach is taken with the song “I” (6:12) where the vocals and guitar are obviously conveying the intensity of the story, but then the song again takes on a grand orchestration. My personal favorite is the track “Us” (8:31) which starts with an ominous mid-tempo moodiness and then kicks into high gear with a series of staccato crescendos.

For this being only the second release, Innerlands is a worthy accomplishment. Signs of One have reached pretty high with this recording and to my ears they’ve more than accomplished what they set out to do. I’d suggest if you like the general style of a band like Queen, but always wanted them to write in a more progressive style you’ll really love Signs of One. They also remind me a bit, particularly with the story style, of the French band Silver Lining. The music goes from fanciful to serious, from epic in scope to pastoral, whatever it takes to convey the moods of the story being told. All in all, there’s a tremendous amount of variety on this disc which for me means it has longevity. In the end I liked it a lot and will certainly be keeping an eye on this band.