GPS :: Window To The Soul

'Window To The Soul' is a the highly anticipated debut release featuring former Asia members singer/bassist John Payne and guitarist Guthrie Govan along with former Hurricane/Unruly Child drummer Jay Schellen . Rounding out the band is the talents of Spock’s Beard's master keyboard player Ryo Okumoto to ensure the fullest from this new and exciting project. As a fan, I can't help but to compare these songs to Asia. After all, Johne Payne and Asia created 5 amazing albums together. While there will be comparsions to Asia, make no mistake about GPS is truly its own entity. GPS can stand on it's own with or without comparisions. John Payne's vocals are powerful throughout this album. Guthrie Govan burns up the frets with his guitar riffs especially on songs like "New Jerusalem" and "Taken Dreams." Guthrie and Ryo blend very nicely through many of the songs on this album, complementing each others talent. Jay's drumming is impeccable. 'Window To The Soul' has everything from great melody, hard driving guitar and keyboard work to harmonizing and lead vocals. Think John Payne era Asia, but with a much more harder edge. There's no filler music in this album, just great musicianship. Nearly all of the songs are 5 minutes or longer and each one of them are power ballads in their own right. This is an ambitious album, and I only hope that John can step out of the shadow of Asia and make GPS into another superstar band. Great music, great production. Some songs sound like asia-pane era, but others not. It is a truly progressive rock of this century!