INK are a Greek Alternative/Psychedelic band from Greece, formed in 1999 in the city of Alexandroupolis. Exactly a decade later, they released their debut LP, "Diary", giving them a marginal amount of success in their home country and then in the US. Then, after another 7 years, a second album, "Loom" came along. Now, in 2018, we're here with an acoustic cover album, "Whispers of Calliope". The record sees the band doing acoustic covers of bands from every genre, Prog Metal (TOOL), Alternative Rock (TEMPLE OF THE DOG, BILLY IDOL), Nu Metal (DEFTONES) and even some Trip Hop (MASSIVE ATTACK). So the premise of the album is no doubt really interesting. But, premises and concepts don't always amount to musical quality, so let's take a look at whether or not they actually wrote and produced good music within the 46 minutes of "Whispers of Calliope".

The answer is half yes, half no. The first song for instance, a cover of the TOOL classic, "Sober", is so well-arranged, if I didn't know about the original song, I wouldn't even think there's a prog metal version, it's so organic and authentic as an acoustic song. Not to mention this is (of course) the introduction to vocalist Chris Tsantalis' amazing voice and performance, which is the most consistent aspect of the LP. The second track, "In a Manner of Speaking" (originally by TUXEDOMOON) further surpassed my expectations, delivering more atmosphere both vocally and instrumentally. In fact, it made me really interested in the original song, the first example of something like that happening for me with a cover song.

However, at track no. 3 ("We Take Manhattan" originally by LEONARD COHEN) is where the album becomes a bi-polar mess in terms of quality. As for the song itself, the vocals just don't work as well, and neither do the guitars align with the vocals. A strong vocal performance isn't enough to save this song, unfortunately. The next song, however is a million times worse, simply because it's 4 times longer. Basically everything I said applies to this BILLY IDOL cover as well. At least the next song, "Like The Way I Do" has a cool chorus, but still, I just didn't feel any reason to raise my head and stop doing everything else to be able to fully appreciate any part of the song, besides the hook.

By the eighth track it's finally a return to the creative acoustic approaches presented in the first two covers. My brain couldn't help but produce a shit ton of dopamine each time they yelled "Go get your knife!" The next two, tracks 9 and 10 could have been removed along with track 7, and nothing about this album would have changed. INK's tribute to the late Chris Cornell, an acoustic turnaround of TEMPLE OF THE DOG's "Hungerstrike" is fitting as a closer (with it's climactic but somewhat peaceful chorus), but as a standalone song, it's a cut above the more generic ones, while not reaching the heights of "Sober" or "Knife Party".