Should be at the top of your wants lists.

Cryptic Vision’s concept trilogy started with ‘A Moment Of Clarity’ and continued with ‘In A World’ and now finally concluding with ‘Of Infinite Possibilities’. These three albums make up a grand sweeping adventure that explores the vastness of time, space and the hearts, souls and minds of the human race. This complex and grandiose tale told through these three wonderful CDs, is a joy to listen to and even though I’m reviewing ‘OIP’ for this issue, I have also had the pleasure of playing each release in order which makes the musical journey created by the band an even more exhilarating and thoughtful experience.

The five men who constitute Cryptic Vision, main songwriter, drummer, guitarist and keyboard player Rick Duncan, vocalist Todd Plant (Eyewitness, Millenium), keyboard player Howard Helm (Zon, Refugee), bassist Sam Conable and guitarist Tim Kesse, have recorded a classic sounding prog rock album that is also laced with elements of melodic rock which will appeal to the vast majority of the Fireworks faithful. Think Spock’s Beard and Kansas mixed with generous doses of Presto Ballet and Rush which I’m sure will sound good to many of you reading this…

‘Of Infinite Possibilities’ is in truth really one long passage of music that is broken down into segments, the first ten are songs that deal with ‘Affecting Time’, ‘M Theory’, the way that we ‘Lucid Dream’ and the complex vastness of space, whilst the final twenty-one minutes of the album are taken up with the title track, which is a huge and wonderful epic song. ‘Infinite Possibilities’ tells the story of the origins of the universe, through to the formation of the planets, the arrival of humankind on the Earth, the quest for knowledge and the meaning of life and the questions about our existence and how will things turn out as time continues... Intelligent subject matter that could be overblown but is handled brilliantly by the band, with beautifully played pieces of music utilising the keyboards of Howard Helm and the superb vocals of Todd Plant to maximum effect, and which are then joined together with the output from the other musicians to make up this engrossing epic track come alive.

The drive, passion and energy that the band have put into this album and its stirring story push the Cryptic Vision ever onward and if you want to listen to something that isn’t your run of the mill prog rock album then ‘Of Infinite Possibilities’ should be at the top of your wants lists.

Cryptic Vision might not be a name that is on everyone’s lips, but with the release of this album that could and should all change.

Ian Johnson