Dream Theater’s guitarist has been hinting at this album release for some time and being a fan of both DT and shredding albums in general, I have to say I was looking forward to hearing what the six-stringer would do on his own (not having picked up on either his early solo effort or Liquid Tension Experiment). It was also an interesting bit of news to discover that Mike Portnoy was on partial drum duties for this release, so clearly although I understood that Portnoy’s departure from Dream Theater was relatively acrimonious these two obviously don’t have a hatchet to bury any longer. Add in maestro Producer Andy Sneap to the mix and I can’t see how this could go wrong - assuming you have the ear for Shredder albums.
This is apparently a lockdown project after Dream Theater’s plans (like every other band on the planet) ground to a halt earlier in the year and the songs are a mixture of brand new material, with a few tracks you may have come across in the past if you are a follower of Petrucci’s G3 work. Given that Petrucci is probably one of the more prolific lyricists in Dream Theater, I was surprised to discover that this is a purely instrumental affair, despite the man having a quite reasonable baritone who has also been known to throw in the odd scream and growl in his DT backing vocal contributions. In terms of technical workmanship, the playing on here is nothing short of fantastic, as you would expect from a craftsman like Petrucci. Technically superb, with blistering fretwork and a good heavy sensibility, with those wonderfully melody lines that only he seems to be able to pull off so effortlessly, this is Petrucci on perfect form.
My ear still misses the interplay between Petrucci and Jordan Rudess that is the backbone of the DT sound and takes a while to adjust but I still find myself blown away by some of the unfettered moments of skill that abound on this album. Music wise, it’s mostly in the fast and progressively furious category, but I found myself really enjoying the more laid back start to Out Of The Blue, which wouldn’t have sounded out of place on a Gary Moore album, before returning in its latter half to the more technically frenetic comfort zone of its writer. And I guess that’s my only beef with the record – that it’s very much a Progressive Metal guitar album, and whereas someone like Joe Satriani would branch out to different styles of music and tempo, this one stays in pretty much the same musical space all the way through, albeit with incredible finesse. 8/10
I’m a big fan of progressive music and this hard rock synth-edged release from Vanishing Point certainly fits into that genre. The Australian band has been together in various iterations since the early 1990s, though vocalist Silvio Massaro is the sole remaining founder member. Overall, Dead Elysium is a pretty good record but there are several reasons why it’s not great. Firstly, the drums and synthesizers are just too loud and pushed too much to the fore. That’s not to say that the drumming and synth elements are bad, but they tend to drown out everything else making melodies and any form of nuance difficult to detect so quite often the rest of the song, extremely well played and sung as it is, passes you by. The second main criticism, which may seem a strange one given the notoriously drawn out songs in the genre, is that many of the songs are just too long.
Jefferson Starship: Mother Of The Sun (Golden Robot Records) [Stuart Blythe]
I must confess to not knowing a great deal about Jefferson Starship. I mean we’ve all been somewhere in the past (generally smoky and dark) listening to White Rabbit by the original Jefferson Airplane, but that was about my full knowledge of the band, other than Grace Slick used to be in them and she did a killer song on the OST for The Crow: City Of Angels (bad film, great soundtrack). I’ve had to do a little research in an effort to catch myself up on the band. This is their first release in over 12 years, with a line up consisting of none of the original members (barring David Freiberg who has been with the band since 1974), although some do pop up here and there in the form of writing credits or actual performances.
Mother Of The Sun is a fun EP, which falters a little toward the back end. It begins very strongly with a one-two punch of opener, and Grace Slick penned It’s About Time leading into What Are We Waiting For. The first track being a strong upbeat AOR track and the latter being a much more considered slow building ballad. What is immediately noticeable is the quality of the production. It is crystal clear, with a most excellent balance of all instrumentation, you can quite literally hear everything in stunning clarity. Couple that with the excellent vocal harmonies of lead singer and Grace Slick replacement, Cathy Richardson and David Freiberg. So far so good.
The stand out track for me is Setting Sun, a bluesy style rock song with undeniable swagger, some awesome Hammond organ and a killer riff. It moves away from the typical AOR oriented stylings of the band, and ends up sounding like mid 90’s radio rock (think Soul Asylum and their ilk). It is a great song. Unfortunately (for me anyway), this is where my enjoyment of the record ends. It descends into more AOR ballads, of which Runaway Again comes across as a cutting room floor remnant of a band like 4 Non Blondes. We then get what I can only describe as filler in the form of a live version of apparently a classic instrumental song Embryonic Journey. Whilst it does show off guitarist Jude Gold’s talent, it doesn’t really do anything for me and left me feeling a bit cold. The EP ends with Don’t Be Sad Anymore, a piano ballad that I honestly thought was Randy Newman, and wouldn’t have sounded out of place in a Toy Story movie. There is then an extended version of What Are We Waiting For, which is a minute longer for some reason.
Vanishing Point: Dead Elysium (AFM Records) [Steve Haines]
I’m a big fan of progressive music and this hard rock synth-edged release from Vanishing Point certainly fits into that genre. The Australian band has been together in various iterations since the early 1990s, though vocalist Silvio Massaro is the sole remaining founder member. Overall, Dead Elysium is a pretty good record but there are several reasons why it’s not great. Firstly, the drums and synthesizers are just too loud and pushed too much to the fore. That’s not to say that the drumming and synth elements are bad, but they tend to drown out everything else making melodies and any form of nuance difficult to detect so quite often the rest of the song, extremely well played and sung as it is, passes you by. The second main criticism, which may seem a strange one given the notoriously drawn out songs in the genre, is that many of the songs are just too long.
The progressive genre is known for long songs because they generally have sub-parts or divisions within them where they become different and continually morph to take you on a journey but with Vanishing Point’s album, it just seems to be long for the sake of being long as there are no significant shifts of direction or composition for anywhere from 6 to 7 minutes. For both of these points, sometimes less is more and as such the best songs seem to be the shortest and despite the shorter running time, they also seem the most textured and restrained. Salvus and To The Wolves are my two favourite tracks and show that the band can truly be synergistic if they try and in both tracks just bringing down the drum and synth emphasis serves to open up the other layers of sound to greater effect.
Overall, the album is good without ever getting above that level for long. The ‘Crusade-era Trivium meets War Of The Worlds’ vibe is interesting but song composition and structure feels too formulaic and during songs it feels too static to really build on that interest. The album may be enjoyed by existing fans of the prog rock/prog metal genres but for anyone thinking of dipping their toe into this direction of music, I feel they would be better served looking elsewhere first. 6/10
Thurisaz: Re-Incentive (Self Released) [Dave Marcovecchio]
Belgian cult-favourites Thurisaz have been going strong for the best part of 2 decades, a respectable amount of time, especially for a band who are so fiercely independent. It is this very independence though, that has seen them earn critical acclaim for their no compromise approach to songwriting as well as a, shall we say, justifiably measured time between albums. Its been 5 years since we last heard from the Belgian Melancholic-o-holics (2015s The Pulse Of Mourning), and while an artist taking such a break might set Spotify's Daniel Ek off on a world class tut-tutting fit, the album proves itself worth the wait.
Opener In-Balance sets the tone, a sprawling 10-minute epic that swivels between different textures, from synth-laden Blackened Melodeath, to sprawling gloom and doom that is so densely layered that it bears repeat listening just to focus on everything that's going on (reversed guitars, mellotron-sounding synth parts, and the bevy of different vocals happening at once from the 4 various band members credited as “vocals”), really serves as a taster platter for what the rest of the album has to offer.
Over a 50 minute runtime and 7 tracks the band produce an almost orchestral opus of different movements, moods and styles, yet these are never jarring or done for the sake of it. It takes some chops to blend Black Metal, Melodeath, Doom, Gothic symphonic metal, acoustic guitars and dense vocal harmonies into arrangements as deliberate and coherent as this. While the tracks may be on the lengthier side with the shortest track The Veil clocking in at 6 minutes (look out Napalm Death!), these never drag or outstay their welcome. Highlights of the album include the absolutely heavyweight riffing on Monologue and the astoundingly cinematic closing trio of Exemption, Isle Of No Man and Eternity Expires. The latter of which providing an emotionally charged climax to the record.
Speaking about the process of writing this album the band described it as “a concept-like album covering the darkness one feels when dealing with the feelings of depression and heartbreak.” and they're certainly not wrong, this ain't exactly an album full of PMA ska-jams after all, there is certainly a degree of beauty to be found within. While Thurisaz are certainly no newcomers, with Re-Incentive they have Re-invented themselves and provided arguably the strongest album of their career to date. 8/10
Belgian cult-favourites Thurisaz have been going strong for the best part of 2 decades, a respectable amount of time, especially for a band who are so fiercely independent. It is this very independence though, that has seen them earn critical acclaim for their no compromise approach to songwriting as well as a, shall we say, justifiably measured time between albums. Its been 5 years since we last heard from the Belgian Melancholic-o-holics (2015s The Pulse Of Mourning), and while an artist taking such a break might set Spotify's Daniel Ek off on a world class tut-tutting fit, the album proves itself worth the wait.
Opener In-Balance sets the tone, a sprawling 10-minute epic that swivels between different textures, from synth-laden Blackened Melodeath, to sprawling gloom and doom that is so densely layered that it bears repeat listening just to focus on everything that's going on (reversed guitars, mellotron-sounding synth parts, and the bevy of different vocals happening at once from the 4 various band members credited as “vocals”), really serves as a taster platter for what the rest of the album has to offer.
Over a 50 minute runtime and 7 tracks the band produce an almost orchestral opus of different movements, moods and styles, yet these are never jarring or done for the sake of it. It takes some chops to blend Black Metal, Melodeath, Doom, Gothic symphonic metal, acoustic guitars and dense vocal harmonies into arrangements as deliberate and coherent as this. While the tracks may be on the lengthier side with the shortest track The Veil clocking in at 6 minutes (look out Napalm Death!), these never drag or outstay their welcome. Highlights of the album include the absolutely heavyweight riffing on Monologue and the astoundingly cinematic closing trio of Exemption, Isle Of No Man and Eternity Expires. The latter of which providing an emotionally charged climax to the record.
Speaking about the process of writing this album the band described it as “a concept-like album covering the darkness one feels when dealing with the feelings of depression and heartbreak.” and they're certainly not wrong, this ain't exactly an album full of PMA ska-jams after all, there is certainly a degree of beauty to be found within. While Thurisaz are certainly no newcomers, with Re-Incentive they have Re-invented themselves and provided arguably the strongest album of their career to date. 8/10
Jefferson Starship: Mother Of The Sun (Golden Robot Records) [Stuart Blythe]
I must confess to not knowing a great deal about Jefferson Starship. I mean we’ve all been somewhere in the past (generally smoky and dark) listening to White Rabbit by the original Jefferson Airplane, but that was about my full knowledge of the band, other than Grace Slick used to be in them and she did a killer song on the OST for The Crow: City Of Angels (bad film, great soundtrack). I’ve had to do a little research in an effort to catch myself up on the band. This is their first release in over 12 years, with a line up consisting of none of the original members (barring David Freiberg who has been with the band since 1974), although some do pop up here and there in the form of writing credits or actual performances.
Mother Of The Sun is a fun EP, which falters a little toward the back end. It begins very strongly with a one-two punch of opener, and Grace Slick penned It’s About Time leading into What Are We Waiting For. The first track being a strong upbeat AOR track and the latter being a much more considered slow building ballad. What is immediately noticeable is the quality of the production. It is crystal clear, with a most excellent balance of all instrumentation, you can quite literally hear everything in stunning clarity. Couple that with the excellent vocal harmonies of lead singer and Grace Slick replacement, Cathy Richardson and David Freiberg. So far so good.
The stand out track for me is Setting Sun, a bluesy style rock song with undeniable swagger, some awesome Hammond organ and a killer riff. It moves away from the typical AOR oriented stylings of the band, and ends up sounding like mid 90’s radio rock (think Soul Asylum and their ilk). It is a great song. Unfortunately (for me anyway), this is where my enjoyment of the record ends. It descends into more AOR ballads, of which Runaway Again comes across as a cutting room floor remnant of a band like 4 Non Blondes. We then get what I can only describe as filler in the form of a live version of apparently a classic instrumental song Embryonic Journey. Whilst it does show off guitarist Jude Gold’s talent, it doesn’t really do anything for me and left me feeling a bit cold. The EP ends with Don’t Be Sad Anymore, a piano ballad that I honestly thought was Randy Newman, and wouldn’t have sounded out of place in a Toy Story movie. There is then an extended version of What Are We Waiting For, which is a minute longer for some reason.
So all in all, like football, this is a game of two halves. The first half of the EP is very good, the second half not so much. You can tell the band have put a lot of their heart and soul into this, by involving past members and writing some genuinely worthy songs for a band of this age. Where a lot of 70’s and 80’s AOR bands have disappeared into obscurity, Mother Of The Sun is a welcome return. 6/10
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