After the first few seconds listening to This Side of the Green Arrow by Daniel Rogers I was expecting a Prog Metal adventure à la Ayreon or Arena. Well quickly I had to change my mind about this CD.

In fact the music on This Side of the Green Arrow is quite mellow. The first half of the album has pretty much an unplugged feel to it. Tranquile piano and acoustic guitar, discrete percussions, but surprisingly, there is an underlying tension to the music. On most of these songs I was expecting an outburst of some sort... that would never happen. Contributing to the somber and tense mood of the music is Daniel Rogers' lead vocals. He reminds me of Roger Waters but a Roger Waters that would always manage to remain calm. In fact there is a reference to be made with the music on This Side of the Green Arrow and some of Waters' songs (the melower ones).

Gradually, the second part of This Side of the Green Arrow evolves onto more ambient moods. Also female lead singing appears so the feel of the album becomes gradually less dark. This is done in a subtle manner.

Were it not for some occasional strange sounding sampled sounds, This Side of the Green Arrow is an album I could have easily put on while entertaining friends at home. It is very well produced and the performances and compositions are very good. I do not know what kind of audience This Side of the Green Arrow can target though (this is the marketing professor in me speaking). It is almost like an unplugged - ambient - metal album.

This Side of the Green Arrow is well worth checking out. Daniel Rogers is a musician to keep an eye on, for sure. His MySpace page is worthy of a visit indeed.