Progressive rock as a genre tends to struggle with a variety of components that alienate mainstream listeners: grandiose song structures that favor lengthy instrumentals over catchy hooks, deliberately cryptic lyrics, and odd, un-danceable time signatures.  Empire Theory, the debut album from Tampa’s Tides of Man, incorporates all of these elements pretty unapologetically, but its 10 tracks are balanced with enough passionate energy and confidence in their tight arrangements, that the end result still somehow manages to be totally awesome.  It’s difficult to draw comparisons with a band this unique, but if pressed to file them under a specific category, I would describe their overall sound as somewhere between the experimental post-hardcore of The Sound of Animals Fighting and the more frantic, mathy prog of Closure in Moscow.

Vocalist Tilian Pearson’s impossibly high tenor is reminiscent of Anthony Green, though his voice has more in common with Green’s early days in Saosin than his later work with Circa Survive, opting for lung-shredding screams almost as often as his water-clear falsetto.  Above all, he packs much more intensity into his singing than one comes to expect with the genre, which should help extend the band’s appeal beyond the usual fans of Coheed and Cambria and The Mars Volta, to the casual Warped Tour crowd as well.  Anyone interested in sampling Pearson’s full range should download “Western Scene,” a mind-boggling gem buried ¾ of the way through the album.  The song has a variety of dynamic sections crammed in to showcase Pearson’s voice, including a single softly-floating vocal melody, multi-tracked soaring harmonies, smooth octave doubling, raw screaming, and everywhere in between.

Still the biggest highlight of the album would have to be the second track, “Create Couldn’t Keep Up.”  The band’s three-guitar lineup carries the song, shifting back and forth between a lush orchestral ambience and a huge post-hardcore assault that underlies a distorted vocal melody about halfway through the song.  Finally at about five and a half minutes, the vocals cut out and are replaced by a discordant eastern-scale guitar solo, after which the band starts to build beneath stop/start harmonized guitar arpeggios.  The final climax comes at about seven minutes, with the conclusion of the second epic guitar solo.  I count myself as someone who can rarely stomach a guitar solo, but this song’s build is so organic, and the arrangement is so perfect, that the guitar shredding heroics that ensue feel necessary rather than forced.

Elsewhere the album is balanced by contrasting dynamics, such as in the haunting title track with its shimmering spookiness, and in the acoustic guitar-laden “Descent,” which feels somewhat like a demented waltz in 5/8.  Most importantly, throughout the many moods created here, all the songs themselves are concise, most of them clocking in under five minutes.  Though it’s true that five minutes might well test the attention span of someone used to pop radio singles, I assure you that for progressive rock, that’s brevity.  And while the musicianship is substantial, the playing is never showy or needlessly complex.  Indeed, for a band with such considerable chops, they show remarkable restraint and maturity for their debut album.  The rhythm section is consistently rock solid, and the focus of the guitars is much more on tasteful atmospherics than blistering lead lines.

As someone who is constantly discovering bands just after they have broken up, it is refreshing to come across a fresh group of musicians who are just now finding their sound.  And if they keep making music like this, I am confident that Tides of Man will not be opening for bands like Dance Gavin Dance much longer.  Indeed, if there is any justice in the music world, they will soon be headlining at Terminal 5 and Dance Gavin Dance will be opening for a local classic rock combo at Don Hill’s.  But enough about how much I hate Dance Gavin Dance and Don Hill’s (such a gross place) – Tides of Man are a really great band, and Empire Theory is an awesome album that deserves your attention.  If you’re like me, go buy it and have your often-shaken faith in rock music once again restored.