At times I find myself baffled when I come across a band that remains unsigned. Israel's DISTORTED HARMONY is one such act; a modern, liquid take on Progressive Metal, the likes of VOYAGER and TERAMAZE, 2014 seeing the release of their second, much-awaited album, "Chain Reaction". To fall in love at first listen with a band, should speak wonders about the quality of their music.

"Every Time She Smiles" treads the fine line between commercial/catchy, and otherworldly/unorthodox. The introduction is constructed of a blissfully engaging myriad of sounds and a build-up that subtly grows in power, with chord progressions grabbing at you like hands with sheathed claws. The riffs smack you in the face with that unmistakably Proggy embellishment of fluent and plentiful licks. The vocals are unique to the band, similar in delivery to those of VOYAGER's Daniel and ANUBIS GATE's Henrik; they seep in and out of powerful, chorus-friendly belts and fluent, jazzy, easy-listening deliveries of poetry. "Children of Red" is one of the album's heavier tracks, with masterfully arranged rhythmic deliveries, full of delicious, disjointed syncopation, brimming with melodic and technical grooves.

"Hollow" has a about it a strong presence of groove in its riffs. The vocals in this track, even when compared to previous tracks, bounce around with a pure grasp of range and melodic progressions, and the choruses are belted out with a primal energy. "Natural Selection" draws heavily from the technical Prog of DREAM THEATRE; easily one of the thickest and most complex 5 minutes of arrangement on the album. Our sense of sound is kept in limbo, with constant alterations of timbre; thick decants into thin almost instantly, and the erratic changes are incessant. Slow to complex; heavy to melodic, oftentimes reversed and juxtaposed.

"Chemical Reaction" is definitely one of the year's best melodic releases, and an extremely ambitious Prog album in its own right. It is my hope that they see the same jump in success as ANUBIS GATE and TERAMAZE did, following the releases of their respective masterpieces.