M a n i f e s t   V i s i o n s

tHE wORD oN tHE sTREET..

Progwerld review by Mark M:

"I can’t wait for the release of this fantastic American band’s debut. Dry Bones sounds like a marriage between Threshold and Iona (so, yep, that’s possible). Thanks in no small measure to the fantastic voice of Collette Taylor and the heavenly guitar solos (especially the one at the end!) by Lance Haynes. The track is mixed by Fred Schendel (Glass Hammer)".

Dry Bones review by Bart Cusveller from the Dutch Progressive Rock Page:

"Theophonic Cloud.. to me, this is the most exciting debut on the disc. Lyrically, it is about the weird vision of the prophet Ezekiel, of a valley of skeletons being clad with muscles and flesh again, receiving the breath of life, to form an army for the Lord. How on earth this vision ended up on a progressive rock album is a marvel to me, but it works out great. How to describe it? A metal Porcupine Tree? A psychedelic Under the Sun? Anyway, great female singer, pounding drums, haunting guitar, infectious riffs, somewhat epic. This exotic surprise proves a hard act to follow.."

Some thoughts on Dry Bones from Brad Watson of the progressive rock band Shadowstar:

"Have any of you listened to something for quite a while, and then one day something on it jumps up and hits you in the face, and you wonder how
you could have slept through it all this time?

Strawberry Fields was one I remember this happening with. It was played on the radio so much, that I became familiar with the tune and could sing
the lyrics with the radio for a long time before I, one day, LISTENED to the lyrics. It was like a light came on. The meaning was not only much
deeper than I had expected, but the sentimental "longing for an earlier, simpler time of childhood" finally came through.

Well, the latest example of this happening to me is from CPR Vol. I. I don't know how many times I have listened to both CD's, but for some reason I had not REALLY listened to "Dry Bones". Somehow I let it sneak up on me. I don't know if it was because of where it was on the disc or some other reason, but I wasn't really listening.

Then one day I was thinking about production quality on songs, and I thought, "I need to go back and compare the original version of "Dry Bones" with the one that was finally used," just to see what improvements I could listen for on my stuff. Well, I didn't realize that I didn't have
a copy of the original, but when I listened to the song, I thought, "How did I miss this? The song is great!"

I thought the lyrics and melody worked great to convey the mood of the song. It kept the song from being "campy". If one is not careful, a story about speaking to dead bones, and them coming to life, could become like a "cartoon" to the listener. But they managed to avoid that, giving a sense of mystery (and even power) to the story. It's like the difference between Tim Burton directing a Batman movie and Adam West's Batman movie. Theophonic Cloud pulled off the "Tim Burton-like" masterpiece, and leaves the cartoon version to someone else."

Brad Watson, Shadowstar