Never easy to review a demo that only features 3 numbers. Even less easy when the band proposes some crazy technical progressive metal.

Ain't tellin' you what a damn hassle it can be!

But before talking about the album, we need a little biography. The band is from England and was formed in 2005 by 4 musicians with pretty close origins, coming from different groups. TTP are, above all, trying to explode the limits of conventional metal. The only limit the band state they are bound to is to keep melody in their composition. Here comes their first real EP after having released a short 2 songs demo. The result of all this is hybrid music finding its origins from many genres.

The 3 songs of Slowly Forming Sanity give a true idea of what this out-of-norm metal style can sound like. The Englishmen look like they've been through a lot of influences to get there. Listing all of them would definitely be very long, but mainly, you can find Cynic, Watchtower, Gordian Knot, Fates Warning, Atheist or Atrox and Queensrÿche. John Knight's vocals are really impressive, wandering everywhere, screaming his rage and emotive lyrics with power.

On the music side now, every song is pretty much similar in structure but surprisingly very different. Kevin Jackson's bass is intense and it grooves. The rhythm section is disjointed a bit like I heard recently in 'In The Guise Of Men', or, to make it simpler, in all the bands previously cited. And it's even insolent. What a mastery! The term "hybrid" is probably better suited than "experimental", because other bands did that before them, but the roots are clearly there. TTP is one of the best tributes one can give to the masters of the genre. A bit like Zero Hour or Spiral Architect. The Englishmen, fortunately, don't neglect melody in this mastered cacophony. There's chaos, certainly, but it's controlled, confusion playing with constant harmonies. The whole thing stays coherent despite a jerky rhythm moving all over the place.

Hats off to this young unknown band that deserves to gain recognition & respect in their genre.

Don't hesitate, rush to their website and their MySpace page where you can listen to this EP as much as you like. One more record whose excessive listening won't lead you to an overdose, on the contrary, you might even get addicted. TTP should make great things in the near future, so stay tuned, I might talk about them pretty often.

By The Keeper.

by: Kostas Sarampalis (4 out of 5)

It's a little bit pretentious, maybe even slightly arrogant. Calling yourself 'thE.thinkinG.principlE' (Just what we intended!! lol JK)
(notice also the arty-farty dots and upper-case name characters) and describing your music as technical and heavy "thinking metal", without boundaries and commercial restrictions and still maintaining the essence of true melodic metal. Thereby they also have the intention of reminiscing the experimental metal bands of yester-year. Oh well, then they can only be disappointing, isn't it? Especially when they appear from the British Isles as well (not really the birthplace of metal's revival the last twenty years).

Nevertheless, this little three-track EP isn't as bad as their superfluous presumptions imply. The band members show impressive skills, play virtuous and technical, yet heavy and melodic. The singer uses mainly the high(est) registers, so eventually thE.thinkinG.principlE's music resembles quite a lot with the tech metal from fifteen, twenty years ago. Think of the principle that bands like Watchtower, Hades, Anacrusis, Toxik ('Think This') and Psychotic Waltz used to exhibit: (All our big influences!! cool ) odd time signatures, almost jazz/fusion-like structures and an extremely high vocals. Musically speaking, the band is especially influenced by the first one; vocally speaking, whereby the vocal lines would have fit the first album of Psychotic Waltz. So what's the use of this repetition of moves? Despite the far better production (for instance Watchtower's debut album is an audible drama) and the pleasant glorification of the "remember the good old times"-feeling, the songs are simply very strong. And despite the influences it doesn't suffer from an outdated sound or vibe, because it sounds fresh, vital and very metal. After their debuting demo this is a little document & a very convincing visiting card, which will hopefully trigger the attention of record labels and festivals like Progpower and Headway. This band name isn't such a bad name, after all.

Evil Dr. Smith:

(Cool! This dude- hit the nail on the head with where we are coming from- cheers Dr Smith- you rule)