Pryzme’s ‘True Stories… And Other Lies’ is a distinct departure for the band, one that doesn’t have to scream just to get your attention. There’s no flashy or hard-to-access technicality; this is an album you can sit with and feel. It opens with “Echo of Silent Place”, a soft and brooding entry point. Pryzme pulls you in with long notes and a reserved emotionality that holds you in space. Then the “Earth Song hits you”. It’s this orchestration of organic fury, like a forest’s last gasp against mankind. It’s not melodramatic; it’s quiet and blunt and deliberate. There’s so much life in the instruments here. The drums breathe, the guitar nearly cries, and it all comes crashing down with the weight of a heavy truth.
“End of the Anger” completely shifts gears once more. This one’s an exhibitionist as it flirts with time signatures, with emotional tone, and even with genre, rolling from funk-inflected basslines to metal-punk tinges and throat-shredding vox that almost break its framework. It’s emotionally conflicted, but in a way that holds together, even if the tension is taut. “Green Eyes” is more subdued, more rooted. There’s an emotional intimacy that makes the song feel like a secret, or like someone who’s seen right through you. It’s an interesting contrast to the rest of the record, in that it sounds more like a conversation than a song. Then we have “Reality of Dreams”. It starts like an echo of a memory, this meandering of gentle and warm melodies swaddled in complex, chiming guitarwork and a four-on-the-floor heartbeat. It’s a weird mix of comforting and unnerving.
When you reach “Never Again”, it’s become quite clear that Pryzme can both mess with your head and with your sense of what feels direct and straightforward. This one’s more of the latter but not in an in-your-face way, just raw and almost guttural with feeling. There’s this stacking of vocal lines that seems so close, so cathartic. And then the piece ends with “Silent Place”, a garden in full bloom. This track clocks in at 12 minutes, but you never feel it. Not like a slog, not like a breakdown or something that wants to outstay its welcome. It’s just a full moment, one where every movement and stillness and swell feels perfectly organic. Overall, ‘True Stories… And Other Lies’ is an album that doesn’t reach out and grab you with volume. It earns your attention and your emotional investment with care, with clarity, and with a lot of depth. This is prog with a pulse, and with something on its mind.
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