The early-1990s classic. Suffocating the Bloom is echolyn’s second album: a richly ambitious progressive rock record built around a twenty-eight-minute suite, and the album that first turned heads beyond the underground.

The short version

The second album by echolyn, released in 1992 on their own Bridge Records label; ten shorter songs plus the sprawling, twenty-eight-minute suite A Suite for the Everyman. Widely regarded as an early-1990s progressive rock classic, it refines the intricate, harmony-rich style of their debut into something more focused and ambitious, and it was the record that drew the attention of a major label. The five-piece line-up of Brett Kull, Christopher Buzby, Ray Weston, Tom Hyatt and Paul Ramsey deliver one of the high points of the decade’s American prog.

The breakthrough

With their debut behind them and progressive rock still deeply out of fashion, echolyn doubled down on ambition for their second album. Recorded in 1992 and released on their own Bridge Records, Suffocating the Bloom sharpened the band’s trademark two- and three-part vocal harmonies and tight, contrapuntal writing, and crowned the record with A Suite for the Everyman, a twenty-eight-minute piece in eleven parts. Lyrically, the album reflects on the loss of childhood innocence and idealism, themes fitting for a band moving through their twenties. It was this album that caught the ear of Sony’s Epic label, setting up the major-label chapter that followed.

The sound

An intricate, ambitious brand of American progressive rock, richer and more assured than the debut, blending sweet vocal harmonies with bombastic, adventurous musicianship, symphonic touches and even a hint of bucolic folk. The band’s debt to Gentle Giant is at its clearest here, in the interlocking vocals and angular, contrapuntal arrangements, softened by elegant acoustic passages and light string sections. It is dense with shifting changes and ideas, demanding but hugely rewarding, and it shows a young band growing quickly into their ambitions.

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The songs

The album opens with a run of shorter songs — among them the punchy 21, the eight-minute Memoirs from Between, the playful A Little Nonsense and the lovely Here I Am — before giving itself over to its centrepiece. A Suite for the Everyman, a twenty-eight-minute composition in eleven linked parts, is the album’s crowning achievement, moving through a wealth of moods and themes and closing on the title movement, Suffocating the Bloom. It is echolyn’s most ambitious early statement, and one of their most beloved.

Reception and legacy

Suffocating the Bloom has come to be regarded as an early-1990s progressive rock classic and one of echolyn’s finest albums, admired for its ambition, its vocal writing and the scope of its central suite; it stood out sharply in a lean period for the genre. As the record that brought the band to a major label’s attention, it also marks a turning point in their story, and it remains a favourite among their admirers to this day.

The verdict

An ambitious, richly detailed and deeply rewarding album, and one of echolyn’s essential early works: their intricate, harmony-rich prog at its most adventurous, anchored by a superb long-form suite. Come to it for A Suite for the Everyman and the interplay of the band’s voices. Along with As the World, it is one of the very best places to hear what makes echolyn special, and a cornerstone of 1990s American progressive rock.

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