Picking up this album I immediately see a track listing of just eight songs. So courtesy of my propensity towards free association, I feel duty bound to share with you the small fact that I then have to ask myself "Is this going to be a progressive rock album or maybe something more akin to say Saxon's 'Strong Arm Of The Law'?"

In this day and age with a CD capable of accommodating over an hour of music I tend towards the former. But no. The album is a rational and completely sane forty minutes long. So maybe it's got more in common with Saxon's 4 songs-a-side than I would've guessed. OK enough. Before people start branding Order Of Voices as a bunch of Barnsley tea drinkers who go through entire recording sessions without shaving I think we'd better have a listen.

'For Me' starts off quietly enough which is good as I'm not in the mood for any out and out metal - all that talk of Saxon has given me a headache without me hearing a note. The vocal harmonies will be well received by fans of Alice in Chains with their smooth and downbeat melancholic tones but the choruses do tend to tip towards the Metallica end of the scale. We're getting heavier but I'm liking it. The chorus is very catchy and has me attempting to sing along to words that I don't know in no time at all.

By the third track, 'Reaching Down', I would describe this band as being of equal parts Haven, Harem Scarem, Alice in Chains, Metallica and Marillion. And it's a mix that works for me. Production on this album is handled by the band's guitarists Ash Homar and Stefan Blackwood and it's impressively done. Despite being in the band they've managed to maintain an objective perspective and made a really great sounding and balanced album. The next three tracks illustrate what a range vocalist Leigh Oates possesses. I'm not even really talking about vocal range here but emotional range and range of expression. 'What I Breathe' is quite a tender ballad while 'Forgiveness' has something of the Chris Cornell roar about it and so it is with 'Don't Falter Now'.

'Then Fall' is the track that really defines and differentiates this band from the rest. It's ambient, atmospheric, soft and dreamy. It's here that the lines start to blur between say bands like Radiohead, Sigur Ros and bands like Metallica and Soundgarden. There's also a David Sylvian quality about this track. It's stripped down. Naked. The arrangement of the guitars is such that they float rhythmically in an unconventional and somewhat freeform manner - the beat is there - it's just disguised in the same way that orchestras disguise their rhythms unbridled by the 4/4.  'Into The Ocean' continues the mood into an extended outtro theme with some lofty Ebowed sonics that could have seeped straight from the hand of Robert Fripp or The Edge.

I do like a band that can mix it up a little and Order Of Voices does this to good effect - all by slight of hand without really knowing how it was done.

On their website Order Of Voices make the bold and brassy claim of being "a legitimate contender for your affections, your new favourite band!" and I must say, I haven't got a problem with that....at all.

http://www.orderofvoices.com/

www.myspace.com/orderofvoices