THE DAVE FOSTER BAND

From folk to neo-prog with Foster and friends.

While it was undeniably a sad day when the news broke that Dave Foster was bidding farewell to Panic Room, the arrival of his third solo album provides a salve to that wound. Like 2016’s Dreamless, Nocebo finds the guitarist collaborating with singer Dinet Poortman, plus his fellow Panic Room alumni, the always groovy Yatim Halimi, plays bass on five of the 11 tracks. Ephemeral and Forfeit bring out the group’s acoustic, folk side, and Within is full of dramatic dips and swells. Vocalist Martin Jakubski, Foster’s bandmate in his gig with

The Steve Rothery Band, duets with Poortman on Anything while Rothery himself pops by to deliver an uplifting guest guitar solo on karma. It’s easy to hear the influence of Rothery and Marillion in Ghosts, which features a rare lead vocal from Foster and boasts the crunchiest riff on the album. Dinet Poortman doesn’t have a big belter of a voice, but her delivery brings out all the emotion in the ballad All That Remains. Nocebo is not the proggiest record you’ll hear this year – it’s not full of songs the length of marathons or odd time signatures – but together Foster and Poortman pen a fine tune.