Utopia Perfection is a very interesting and enjoyable prog/pop/rock album from Finnish band Discordia. Considering this is their debut release, the band sounds very tight and focused here, as they mix strong female and male vocals, airy keyboards, rock guitar, violin, and intricate rhythms. While you can hear a little bit of Fish era Marillion, Renaissance, Gentle Giant, and Yes in their music, I can't say that they aren't trying to come up with their own sound here on Utopia Perfection, which is always good to see in a young prog band these days.
For the most part, the 11 songs here are quite upbeat and quirky, occasionally verring off into a rocking, avant-garde quality, like on the excellent and offbeat "The Group", which features layers of vocals, complex violin/guitar tradeoffs, and all-around zany Zappa-ish feel. A few of the tunes have some pop appeal and are quite catchy, like "Foreseen" and "Mystery Man", but for the most part, this is intricate prog rock all the way. "Interlude" features some lovely female vocals over aggressive riffs and complex drum & bass work, and "The Comment Of The Wise" is a real powerful instrumental that borders on prog metal, with lots of crunchy guitar and commanding keyboards. If a prog band ever wanted to poke fun at the power metal genre, then "Mighty Power Of Metal" would be the end result, a very fun tune with devilish male vocals, speedy drum work, and complex guitar lines.
There's good stuff at every juncture on Utopia Perfection. Finland's just produced another solid prog band folks, and my guess is we shall be hearing more from Discordia in the months and years to come.
Track Listing
1 Foreseen
2 Mystery Man
3 Speak Directly
4 As Above So Below
5 The Group
6 Interlude
7 Slave Planet I
8 Slave Planet II
9 The Comment Of The Wise
10 Mighty Power Of Metal
11 Giant Dwarf
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