As Is (a name that is impossible to research) were a band from the Orlando area who released this one album before calling it a day. The album was sold to me as such (paraphrasing) "1976 archival prog metal from Tin House". I couldn't find it in either Discogs or RYM, so I pulled the trigger. Just as I enjoy finding unknown vinyl, I also love digging for unknown CDs. That was the original premise of the Under the Radar CDs blog over 10 years ago, before I repurposed it (and that blog is on ice at the moment, as I'm not actively seeking contemporary groups).
10 seconds into this, and I knew it wasn't from 1976. This is no analog recording and those synth patches scream the 90s. Which would explain the lack of any kind of history in the liner notes. In fact, the entire sales pitch was misleading. Do I think the seller purposely misled us? Nope, not at all. The 1976 part can only be considered some sort of miscommunication or misremembrance. Is it prog? No. Is it metal? No. Is it related to Tin House? Sort of - but not the 1971 version of the band. Tin House had a reunion and released their own obscure followup in 2009. The guitarist for the resuscitated Tin House was a one David Mikeal, and he was the leader of As Is. And that's who the seller obtained this directly from. As for the musical style indicators, that can be chalked up to the seller's own background. For years, I watched psychedelic sellers refer to anything with a keyboard as progressive rock. And likewise, anything that has a slightly fuzzy guitar tone gets labeled as metal.
So what is As Is (so to speak)? Hard rock with AOR aspirations. They were part of the AOR revival scene that was active back in 2000 (and I'm sure still exists in some form or another). They were bringing back 1980 era FM radio. Melody and choruses, with hard rocking guitars and some extended ideas. For what they set out to accomplish, it's quite good. Mikeal does lay out some good licks and solos, and the remainder of the band fills in quite nicely. Most are singers too, so vocals play a key role, but do not dominate. This is not a field I have much experience with (retro hard rock/AOR?), so I'm lacking in comparisons. It really doesn't sound like a band from 1980 because of the modern instrumentation, but musically it could be tied to any number of groups like Saga, Toto, Styx, Blue Oyster Cult, etc... So while I was disappointed the album didn't match the intended premise, I'm certainly pleased to own this. Probably wouldn't have sought it out on its own, nor am I clamoring for more of it, but there's a place here in the collection for As Is.
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