This Saturday, Cincinnati Hard Rock crew Lift the Medium returns with its second full-length album, Moment In Time. The release party is Saturday at Southgate House Revival (111 E. Sixth St., Newport, Ky., southgatehouse.com), where the band will be joined by locals Dear Agony and See You in the Funnies. The show begins at 8 p.m. and admission is $10.
Moment In Time (the follow-up to 2014’s Mastermind) is a staggeringly accomplished album and not just when you consider the group has only been a band for four years. On the new release, Lift the Medium pulls off a difficult feat. Every song on the album has the kind of Hard Rock sound that would instantly and unquestionably be embraced by contemporary Rock radio, but there is also a level of progressiveness and imagination behind the music that most bands on those airwaves could never dream of possessing.
The songs on Moment In Time are loaded with gigantic melodies (often saturated with waves of vocal harmonies) and the kind of hooks that people who listen to bands like, say, Shinedown and Breaking Benjamin would devour. Moment is also one of the most well-produced albums by a Cincinnati band you will ever hear, which, besides allowing each musician’s musical proficiency to shine, also provides a crystal-clear view of the music’s accessibility. Lift the Medium certainly sounds like a major-label band.
But all of that is not to say the album comes off like some heartless ploy to get a record deal. The music is impassioned and the group comes to its ear-friendly sound by liberally drawing from an expansive spectrum of Rock influences. While you can hear elements of epic Maiden-style Metal, just as often you’ll be reminded of modern Alt/Prog idols like Tool or Grunge/Post Grunge icons like Chris Cornell or current melodic acts like Stone Sour. While the musicians know how to write with a directness that appeals to the masses, they are also capable of being adventurous and providing unexpected moments. It’s not Dream Theater or Mars Volta progressive, but even fans of those artists would appreciate the more idiosyncratic side of Lift the Medium.
The blending of these varied touchstones is done with a genuineness that comes through on Moment In Time just as much as the members’ remarkable instrumental prowess or the music’s potential to hit at radio. The musicians come off less like pandering careerists and more like true scholars and hardcore fans of the past 50 or so years of successful harder Rock. Moment In Time is a testament to Lift the Medium’s talent for making something conventionally appetizing, yet full of complex flavors that linger.
Check out liftthemedium.com for album info and more.
This article appears in Aug 9-16, 2017.