Rival Joustas – 'The Masquerade' (Protest Recordings) Released 23/04/07

You can’t accuse Rival Joustas of following trends. In a year when every wannabe guitar hero is excitedly reaching reaching the fluoro, this four-piece from Netley Abbey (no, I’ve never heard of it either) have turned to an equally extravagant but far less hip source of inspiration. Step forward, prog – your revival begins now. Well, maybe not, but this sprawling debut single certainly has the scope of a Wakeman-esque epic, if not the sound. The keyboards are out in force, though thankfully they don’t sound as naff as they did in 1974, but they’re complemented by some frantic guitar work reminiscent of System of a Down’s more straightforward moments. Unlike most prog monsters, ‘The Masquerade’ clocks in at a radio-friendly 4 minutes and also boasts some serious dancefloor potential to boot. However, If there’s one thing that might hold them back from mainstream success, it’s that singer Thomas Henley doesn’t quite embrace the level of hysteria the music commands as well as, say, Matt Bellamy from Muse does. If they can sort this out, there’s every chance they could ‘do a Muse’ and inject a bit of frenzied histrionics into this summer’s charts.