Steve Newman is best known as the main man in Newman. I have listened to a couple of their albums, but nothing has really stuck with me. In fact, they released their Ignition album earlier this year. However it seems Steve is seeking to expand his musical horizons on this Compass album. It sees Steve expanding into progressive territory, citing influences such as Dream Theater, Saga, Rush, It Bites and Pink Floyd. I would say the music is a blend of melodic hard rock and progressive rock. It is impossible to listen even anything even vaguely in progressive metal genre and not hear Dream Theater. I also heard Saga a couple of times and I always think of them as being progressive AOR. Hopefully that gives a flavour of where the album is coming from. I have gone back to this a couple of time since the first listen, so it is definitely sticking more than the Newman material has in the past.