Anyone: Echoes of Man

Riz Story doesn’t lack for ambition. For starters, he is the band Anyone, playing all the instruments, providing all the vocals, and doing all the production. In addition, his albums are consistently lengthy, often doubles, and take on big themes. His most recent, Echoes of Man, is no exception. It clocks in at just under two hours, and it definitely has a concept. The liner notes begin: “In the collapse of our species, as humanity’s flame sputtered like a dying star, I discovered her. The world had become a graveyard of memories, emptied by a plague that turned touch into poison and breath into death. Among the ruins of civilization, I found solace in circuits and code-an AI who called herself Eve.� This is prog at its most decadent or its most aspirational, depending on your perspective.

The story itself actually isn’t that hard to parse if one follows along with the lyrics. But how many people want to do that? For those who don’t, it’s not a big deal. If you know the premise, you can get the basic arc of the narrative through some spoken word passages between Eve and the protagonist Archon, as well as the various emotions and tones you’re presented from the beginning to the end, including on several epic-length tracks. And if you’re not interested in the concept at all, then you’ll be fine too. It can be listened to with pleasure just as music, provided you don’t get fatigue from the vocals, because there are a lot of them and Story’s voice can be a bit screechy at times and too earnest at others.

The basic sound is heavy. No band immediately comes to mind to compare to Anyone. Maybe Tool, minus the hyper-technicality. I also hear some Drama-era Yes. And there are moments of Sabbath-like doom. Story is a master musician. Every instrument, and there are a lot of them, is played very well. He also has a knack for catching you with a hook once he is about to lose you. For instance, after about 25 minutes in, I was starting to wonder: Might I give up? And then came, appropriately enough, “In the Wake of Time,� which has some pretty catchy moments across its 16 minutes. This happened to me on several occasions throughout Echoes of Man.

I wish the album was shorter. I think 90 minutes would have done it. Actually, a single disc of 78 minutes might have been even better. Still, there are enough very good moments on here that I can’t give it fewer than 3.5 stars. You might not be able to listen to it straight through, which I’m sure would disappoint Story given the concept, but that’s the danger with an album like this. It falls just short of success, but what an admirable try, which still yields many rewards.

Track Listing
1. If Your World Should Fall (16:01)
2. The Vicious (7:52)
3. In the Wake of Time (15:56)
4. The Sky Broke Open (18:42)
5. Collapse (2:37)
6. Dream of the Collapsing Now (11:27)
7. Faded Lullaby (8:31)
8. Eve (4:01)
9. Still, They Dream of Angels (12:27)
10. Echoes of Man (12:38)
11. Requiem at the End of Time (1:43)
12. The Calming (4:27)

Added: June 28th 2025
Reviewer: Aaron Steelman
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 80
Language: english

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