I must admit to being slightly worried upon opening my first review package to find a German prog rock band, but hey ho let's go!

Don't judge a book by its cover, I will always give a band a chance to impress me. With prog bands I tend to get bored after 2-3 songs, probably not their fault, I just have a short attention span for anything proggy I guess! So what is prog rock these days anyway? For me it conjures up images of Rush, Dream Theater and the sound of a thousand keyboards parping in harmony, not my cuppa tea! The Intersphere, however, follow the more modern path of bands such as 30 Seconds To Mars, bringing a more commercial and, dare I say it, 'punk attitude' to proceedings, whilst still retaining a definite progressive sound and structure to songs.

Opening with the atmospheric 'Right Through Me', I get a glimpse of Mansun before, suddenly, 'Prodigy Composers' sets the scene with a jagged riff and an immediate sense of urgency - great song, so far so good! 'Early Bird', again, has a great punky, jagged riff tipping its hat to Lostprophets, also a nice bit of shouting - all feels like it ends too soon, which is usually a good sign. Six songs in and with 'In Satellites' I start to hear the Muse comparisons in the bass and drums, this follows through on to the fantastically named 'I Have A Place For You On Google Earth' that sounds like Incubus before veering off into madness for the middle section. Actually a lot of this album reminds me of Incubus minus the funk. 'State Of The Divine' sounds like Porcupine Tree covering Lostprophets' 'A Town Called Hypocrisy'.

I purposely didn't Google this band before reviewing, there are no pictures with the package, but have since had a look and am pleased to say they look nothing like The Scorpions so that's a bonus!

So, is 'interspheres><atmospheres' worth your hard earned cash? Well, they certainly have the musicianship, some great songs and a truly modern rock sound, but I feel they are too proggy to compete with the likes of 30 Seconds To Mars etc, but I'm sure that won't stop them. If you dig atmospheric, upbeat, prog punk rock then maybe you should do yourself a favour and give 'em a go.

www.myspace.com/theintersphere