BEYOND AND BEFORE: Prog rockers Nix The Scientist lean in hard to that descriptor on the group’s latest release, Chosen I. This five-song release certainly pays honest tribute to the band’s chosen musical predecessors. To wit, if you can get through the opening song “Prophecy” without thinking of both Emerson, Lake & Palmer as well as Pink Floyd, then you get a gold star. The band takes a huge left turn by the time it gets to “The Curse Of Being Bored” which is a fairly by-the-numbers fourth-wave emo pop song. Similarly, the theatrical screamo of “Eyes Up” leaves me pretty nonplussed. The operatic return to form, if you will, of closer “The End” is a fitting bookend which wraps this up nicely but, when matched with the record’s opener, you’ve got a book whose cover isn’t representative at all of what’s actually inside. I dunno. Let’s just say Nix The Scientist shines brightest when they’re reaching for the stars instead of looking on the ground.
– Gordon Lamb, Flagpole