Artwork by: Inge Schuster
Style: progressive rock (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Spock’s Beard, Kansas, Big Big Train, The Flower Kings, Genesis, E.L.P.
Country: United States-CA
Release date: 14 February 2025
Listening to progressive rock ain’t easy. Here at the Subway, we cover all sorts of stuff which quickly devolve into much more “disagreeable” sonic territory than our rock forebears, but to the average person even our introductory classics are baptism by fire: I mean, have you heard the opening minutes of Close to the Edge? Only the biggest bands in the history of our musical niche have had any mainstream success, and no group comes into prog expecting to make it big—it’s part of what makes the genre so enjoyable. Every new band is a passion project and artists rarely, if ever, drop musical authenticity for approachability. The genre will always be an enjoyable challenge to engage with because of the musical geniuses drawn to the style out of a love for its history and sounds.
Friend of All Creatures, on the other hand, is recognizably progressive rock but is so safe even the uninitiated could listen and be bored. Songwriter John Boegehold and his crew are clearly enamored with the classics, both old (Genesis) and new (Spock’s Beard), but Pattern-Seeking Animals take the template and erase the bite, creating an overly melodic nothingburger. Friends of All Creatures is recognizably prog by virtue of playing into trite cliches. Helmed by Ted Leanord (Enchant, Spock’s Beard) whose voice is practically synonymous with 90s to mid 00s neo-prog, Pattern-Seeking Animals are pretty much an iteration of the post-Neal MorseSpock’s Beard sound—particularly because all but one member of Pattern-Seeking Animals was or is in the Beard.
If you don’t live under a rock shielding you from the trends of semi-modern progressive rock, you already know precisely what Friend of All Creatures sounds like. If you have found such a valuable stone, I’ll fill you in: imagine your favorite non-freaky (ie not King Crimson) melodic prog band from the 70s (preferably Genesis or ELP), take out emotional variation and instrumental virtuosity, and then replace it with heaps of bubbly, melodic aural junk food. The package sounds professional and competent but it’s wholly unsatisfying. Pattern-Seeking Animals’ main problem is a tendency to luxuriate in lethargic sections for swaths of the album. For instance, twelve-minute epic “Another Holy Grail” is largely fueled by retro synths and a slow pace, focusing on an amorphous key progression or tepid vocal line—but as soon as it picks up the pace at 4:00 and again around 7:50, the track suddenly becomes more engaging.
Despite coming across as a vapid take on progressive rock, Pattern-Seeking Animals are seasoned professionals come their fifth album, and the production value is superb, balancing the layered songwriting with aplomb. The strong production comes across in the rich orchestrations of ballad “Down the Darkest Road” and the whimsical closer “Words of Evermore.” Moreover, while the compositions are a tad too meandering, Pattern-Seeking Animals are certainly skilled songwriters: parts of the album which sound simple—like the intricate vocal lines starting around 2:10 into “The Seventh Sleeper”or the climax post-2:45 into “Days We’ll Remember” with a sing-along Enchant-esque chorus but engaging harmonies—but are actually quite complex upon further investigation.
Pattern-Seeking Animals are passionate, fully capable professionals, but they ought to dream bigger and perhaps take some more cues from their influences instead of taking an aggregate middle of their collective sounds and flattening them to a style of “ambiguous melodic” prog. Despite their experience, Pattern-Seeking Animals are clearly still seeking the winning formula—or pattern, if you will—for progressive rock.
Recommended tracks: Down the Darkest Road, The Seventh Sleeper, Words of Love Evermore
You may also like: Jacob Roberge, Neal Morse Band, Transatlantic, Southern Empire, Moon Safari, Enchant, Unitopia, Barack Project, Motorpsycho, Echolyn, Kaipa, Beardfish
Final verdict: 5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram
Label: GEP – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website
Ted Leonard – lead vocals, lead and rhythm guitar
Dave Meros – bass, backing vocals
John Boegehold – keyboards, synthesizers, mellotron, programming, guitar, mandolin, backing vocals
Jimmy Keegan – drums, percussion, backing vocals
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