Monday, September 22, 2014

Flying Colors - Second Nature (2014)

9/22/14 9:46PM

Link with Soundcloud Stream of album

I've checked it out once for the most part. It's not bad, but I'd be lying if I said I was blown away by it. Needs more time I suppose. The Transatlantic comparison is still there, naturally with Neal Morse especially, it often sounds like a lot of his music.

8/20/14 6:15AM

"Mask Machine" video. Not bad. Not as bad at least as some of the comments on some of the forums have given it. Does it sound like Muse? in spots, but so did parts of their debut album. Is it too long? not really just from hearing it initially.



also I never got around to sharing this.The 3 shows in the US Bend Sinister is the support act. I'd love to go, but the Chicago show for example, falls on Yom Kippur anyway. O well, I do hope naturally a lot of new people catch on to Bend Sinister from the exposure as it is cool Flying Colors (Portnoy) is having them share the bill on those 3 dates in the US at least.


OCTOBER 2014 TOUR
10/02 LOS ANGELES, CA JAMES ARMSTRONG THEATER  
10/03 CHICAGO, IL ARACDA THEATER 
10/04 PHILADELPHIA, PA KESWICK THEATER  
10/07 BARCELONA, SPAIN RAZZMATAZZ 2
10/08 MILAN, ITALY MILAN LIVE CLUB
10/09 TILBURG, NETHERLANDS 013
10/11 FRANKFURT, GERMANY BATSCHKAPP
10/12 PRATTELN, SWITZERLAND Z7
10/13 LONDON, UK ISLINGTON ASSEMBLY HALL
10/14 PARIS, FRANCE ALHAMBRA

Special Guests for the US shows will be BEND SINISTER 
Special Guests for Europe/UK will be JOHN WESLEY
7/28/14 10:50PM

Preorder

Trailer:




Second Nature, the sophomore statement from Flying Colors is released via Mascot Label Group / Music Theories Recordings on September 29, 2014 in Europe and September 30, 2014 in the rest of the world.

Sporting stunning artwork from the legendary designer Hugh Syme (Rush, Iron Maiden, Dream Theater) and bookended by two tracks of truly epic stature – Open Up Your Eyes and the multiple-part Cosmic Symphony – the album is every bit as breathtaking as the debut.

Second Nature will be released on CD and 2LP (180 gram vinyl). The vinyl has a downloadcard, good for one MP3 download of the album.
Both the CD and 2LP can be ordered with a specially designed t-shirt that's only available from MLG Merch.

As always we will include a free poster with each order.

But wait, that's not all! Each pre-order will include a free bonus DVD with behind the scenes footage, interviews and more, and we will send you MP3s of 2 bonus songs that are not available on the album**.

**The bonus tracks are being prepared by the band. As soon as we receive them, we will send everybody who pre-ordered the album a link to get these bonus MP3s.

Tracklisting:
1. Open Up Your Eyes
2. Mask Machine
3. Bombs Away
4. The Fury Of My Love
5. A Place In Your World
6. Lost Without You
7. One Lost Forever
8. Peaceful Harbor
9. Cosmic Symphony
I. Still Life Of The World
II. Searching For The Air
III. Pound For Pound 

Please note that this is a pre-order item. If you order this item together with an item that is already available, we will hold your order and ship all items around September 22. We recommend that you place a separate order if you wish to receive the released items sooner.

7/26/14 11:56AM
There is no PRESS RELEASE that I can find at the moment, but the linked website with this information is there, so I'm going with it.

Below is information already published on this Finnish? website/webstore showing the title, artwork, release date (September 26th, 2014) and track list for the sophomore LP from the  prog rock "super group" of a sort  featuring Mike Portnoy, Neal Morse, Steve Morse, Casey McPherson and Dave LaRue, whose Self Titled debut LP made somewhat of a big splash in 2012, at least among progressive rock fans.

Personally? I thought I was going to fall head over heals for that record back in 2012, and while I did enjoy it for the most part, I kind of enjoyed it enough, but also remained curious where this group could go in the future.

I love progressive rock when combined with well produced pop music, and I actually grew to like Casey McPherson as a singer in Alpha Rev after hearing this.

But the jury is out a bit with this band, I think they have the potential to make some amazing songs, so I certainly hold optimism for this. But do I expect this to fight for my favorite record this year? given their debut LP didn't really, I would be pleasantly surprised if it did. But, then again, those are the kind of surprises and albums I often appreciate even more with time (and even their older work after that experience).

One note: the title being "Second Nature" the Rush song comes to mind of course, but also the name of the band that would become Transatlantic, except would have featured Jim Matheos on guitar instead of Roine Stolt, back in 1999/2000. Matheos it turned out wanted-to but was too busy with Fates Warning (I recall reading many years ago) to be able to work on the music for that band/album so had to depart the project (and replaced by Stolt). And at least some of that experience found motivation for Jim to collaborate with Mike Portnoy again with OSI a few years later.

Finnish Webstore Link

This is just a *ROUGH TRANSLATION FROM FINNISH TO ENGLISH*

Virtuoso prog / pop / rock band with (former) members of Deep Purple, Dream Theater, The Winery Dogs, Avenged Sevenfold, Dixie Dregs, Spock's Beard, Alpha Rev & the Trans-Atlantic 

Release date: 09.26.2014. Product will be shipped the release date. 

You can book with this product and pick it up from the nearest Record Shop X.. This is done by moving the product to shopping cart, and then checkout the order takeout trade. 
tracks 

Flying Colors: Second Nature

1 Open Up Your Eyes
2 Mask Machine
3 Bombs Away
4 The Fury Of My Love
5 A Place In Your World
6 Lost Without You
7 One Lost Forever
8 Peaceful Harbor
9 Cosmic Symphony
I. Still Life Of The World
II. Searching For The Air
III. Pound For Pound