Eclecticism in Prog is usually heralded as a favourable quality however can there ever be too much of a good thing? Returning from their I Am Anonymous beginnings, Headspace return once again to challenge this idiom. With an all star cast featuring Threshold’s own Damian Wilson and many others we enter the next stage of the quest for understanding.

[tracklist]

1. Road To Supremacy
2. Your Life Will Change
3. Polluted Alchohol
4. Kill You With Kindness
5. The Element
6. The Science Within Us
7. Semaphore
8. The Death Bell
9. The Day Your Return
10. All That You Fear Is Gone
11. Borders And Days
12. Secular Souls
    [/tracklist][details]
    [length]72:00[/length]
    [record_label]Inside Out Records[/record_label]
    [release_date]Febraury 26th 2016[/release_date]
    [/details]Thematically our story of All That Your Fear Is Gone is driven forward by the idea of the understanding of community. We as humans feel an inherent need to be a member of a community viewing anyone of the atypical as outsiders. Our character on the record is very much self aware understanding that he is the atypical. Combining elements from not only expansive Prog fields but all throughout the musical rubicon, the album is an undertaking to say the least. Perhaps not as gargantuan as a brand new two hour plus epic but still requires enough breathing room to properly assimilate.

    Varying from the country bluegrass stylings of “Polluted Alcohol” that bring to mind a more vintage and organic the green tea drinking blend of the Progressive. To the eight string barrage of “The Science Within Us“, a thirteen minute expansive epic. Complete with monologue from Wilson similar to the eponymous Charlie Chaplin speech “The Great Dictator”, here lies one of Headspace’s greatest strengths. Tethering the often meandering musicalities of the band with well written and most importantly easy to follow melodies with much of the singers finest work being when things quieten down. Title track for example begins with classic Spanish guitar flurries before departing into something all more transcendental with Wilson’s inimitable voice providing the perfect set piece to the more restrained track. Paradoxically softly delivering the singers strong vocal presence makes it to be one of the moving tracks on the record.

    Highlighting the almost limitless scope of instruments heard on All That Your Fear Is Gone, piano has a significant presence making fluttering fingers on “Semaphore”. Yet more ingenuity on “The Day You Returned” sees the use of harmonics creating a dream like halcyon before a smack down of F standard pummelling arrives. Seasoned with smaller sections lasting a mere two minutes, “The Element” for example ties songs together. Nevertheless the taste for atmosphere and the dramatic doesn’t elude the record with grand finale “Secular Souls” beginning with a spoken word section with a faceless, ethereal backing choir. Culminating in a musical climax as the song reaches its twelve minute mark seeing the fruits of the band’s labours truly pay off.

    Bridging the gap between the tweed sounds of seventies prog, the more centered song focused era of the nineties, right up to the age of the modern day technically adept Progressive sounds. Headspace have created an album that might be jam packed with seemingly limitless instrumental ideas and does take a little time to get truly familiar with the sheer scope of music on the record. Regardless Headspace have created an album that is the atypical. Breaking from the confines of convention the band might be a conglomerate of others but with All That You Fear Is Gone, Headspace stand on their own terms, outsiders out of want not accident.

    [verdict]Yes[/verdict]
    [why]For those with a musical pallet intrigued by new and foreign sounds Headspace stand out from the crowd. Building on I Am Anonymous their new record is a musical statement of the individual. A brilliant expansive Progressive record.[/why]

If you like what you read / heard then you can pick up a copy of the album here.