Band:	Cog
Album:	Sharing Space
Style:	Alternative metal
Release date:	2008

01. No Other Way
02. Are You Interested?
03. The Movie's Over
04. What If
05. Bird of Feather
06. Swamp
07. Sharing Space
08. Say Your Last Goodbye
09. How Long
10. The Town of Lincoln
11. Bitter Pills
12. Four Walls
13. Problem, Reaction, Solution

Cog is a total discovery for me. I've never heard anything about this band before today and if I have to be honest I will even say that I was not expecting anything special from this band which was apparently a new combo of Alternative, Progressive Rock. It was a real mistake actually because Cog is a really good band and I hope that you'll not miss their second album "Sharing Space". My friends we're in front of nice album.

If someone tells you that Cog is a new band of Alternative Metal/Rock, you should believe him. Definitely Cog is not a real Metal band and some of their songs can be compared to Incubus (the American band) or even Sting (especially "Bitter Pills"). Of course I'm not saying that it's bad, at the opposite, I really think that Cog is a good discovery this year. Their music which marries Metal with Pop, Alternative Rock and even Progressive music is just cool. The whole album features rock songs with are all atmospheric but also really long with a lot of keyboards, acoustic and electric guitars and a ton of Progressive passages. In general the melodies are a bit sad and melancholic but a bit like Ayreon, "Sharing Space" has a really cool "spatial" atmosphere, I know it's not really easy to explain how it is but the songs are modern and the "planning" side that we can find on all the tracks is simply excellent. "Sharing Space" sounds like a really modern album; sure it's not so wrong to compare the band to all the Alternative combos that we can listen to nowadays but here there is something else, a really cool attitude and above everything else and amazing Progressive influence which lead me to the conclusion that "Sharing Space" is a really unique album. Too bad that sometime the Alternative influences are a bit too strong and transform the album to something a bit too commercial but all in all it's ok really.

With their second album, the guys of Cog already prove that they're at the top of list. "Sharing Space" is an original album which doesn't suffer of any big problems. The production is perfect, all the songs even if they're long are potential hits and only some few people who are not open-minded and don't care about "soft" music will not find anything special in this release. As I said already don't expect anything violent or really Metal here but if you like Rock in general, if you have nothing against Pop and believe that you can mix a lot of different styles to obtain a perfect album of cool Progressive Rock music, I can tell you that "Sharing Space" was made for you!

The new Cog is a nice album and I will bet a lot of money on this name. Ok, some metalheads will don't like it in reason of its lack of big riffs and because it's a bit too Alternative but believe me the album deserves a chance and I'm sure that all the Prog fans will agree with me in the end. "Sharing Space" is a beautiful album, Cog is a great newcomer, don't miss this release please!