Vision
Divine – 9 Degrees West of the Moon (2009) – Review by Logan Lee
The new
vision divine CD which marked the return of their first vocalist Fabio Lione
after Michele Lupo departure and suddenly something came to my mind: I have not
missed him. In my opinion Fabio obligates the band to maintain their power
metal roots and, as a consequence, the complex sound of the album seems to be a
bit repetitive (not very opened to experimentations).
Nevertheless,
this CD shows that Vision Divine is musically growing. Specially in the first 5
songs we can individuate a range of atmospheres including a new dark element on
their style which is the most interesting thing on this work.
Unfortunately
for the rest I was not well impressed and after hearing it I felt the inner
need to hear their best album ever (Stream of Consciousness) in order to
remember how great Vision Divine is. Nowadays I am in Italy, and in here the
metal people is talking more about Lupi’s new project Killing Touch which will
be for sure my next acquisition.
I don’t
fell like giving this album a low grade, because I am sure that Lione’s fans
will enjoy it and for that I will provide a general musical vote: 7/10.
Blotted Science – The
Machinations of Dementia (2007) – Review by Logan Lee
Well, here we go again. Another
project that put together some important figures of the metal scene such as the
very talented guitarist Ron Jarzombek (brother of drummer Bobby Jarzombek who
played with Demons & Wizards, and I guess music is on their blood); drummer
Charlie Zeleny from Behold and to complete this nice team they have called Alex
Webster (on the bass) from famous Cannibal Corpse. Even thouth trash &
death metal are non included on my daily preferences, I must admit that they
put up a very nice instrumental piece of work. Maybe the lack of singed songs
is the reason why I have enjoyed this CD so much, since their power and
technique combined with a mix of musical genres resulted on a very pleasant music
project.
Perfect band from Hamburg, Germany, Oliver Wulff, vocals; Boris Stepanow, guitars; Stephan Kruse, keyboards; Burkhart Heberle, bass; Olaf Sorgenfrei, drums; they are truly and top musicians, their coordination is totally precise, they overcame all made in metal scene.
Inside the Atmosphere, a masterpiece, ten themes, one cover song from the Beatles, 71 minutes from perfect and original prog metal, top five lp for all the time, this is a pure progressive metal album, no power metal here, but it is made with impressive technique.
Song by song:
Inside the Atmosphere, top song, if you have asked how a maestros band plays, AtmOsfear is the answer, just listen this song, elaborated musical parts, four imusicians playing like a technical symphony, each one making his best work.
Circumcision, distorted guitar harmonies and drums to begin, followed by the bass and vocals, keys orchestration appears, excelling metal, just to decipher what Olaf is playing is so hard; they played a fusion part, followed by a guitar solo, incredible minds!; In a scale of the musicians you first play heavy, thrash, death, or any genre of metal, then, power metal, then solo albums or instrumental metal, then, prog metal, and only the very best play fusion, with a doubt AtmOsfear members could record a fusion album.
A Cry of Dismay, to commence, outstanding drums, it seems a little solo, followed by fantastic guitar chords and bass, after a minute appears the keys orchestration, and finally the singings; is amazing how the vocals are adapted to the music, keys solo followed by guitar solo; great end.
Mysterious, it seems that they have recorded this track with filters, these consists in that they played a progressive musical part of some seconds and then they recorded it, then, they played another progressive musical part and then they recorded it, they made that two or three times, when they have joined and recorded all the parts, sounds extremely technique, it is almost impossible to play this song only from hear it, but like I said, that it seems; The guitar distortion is totally different at what I have heard, impress rhythms; suddenly the songs is slower, bass, ride cymbal, hi hat and guitar, but now appears a solo keys, followed by a prog part and followed by a guitar solo, fucking unbelievable! Pure geniality!
Feardrops, guitar riffs to initialize, they play with exact synchronization; impressive sentimental guitar solo, accompanied skilfully by the other band members, excellent how ends the song, fast keys scale with the vocals.
Patience, Keys, the piano is played dexterously, guitar solo, keys solo, and then both instruments, amazing, but most amazing is that follows, perfect musical part, I can describe it, you need to listen it, simply awesome!
Thinking Progressive, top song ever, maybe the best from the genre, they really think progressive at the time of the song’s creation, they made this song so inspired; is incredible to the ear, the rhythms are superprogressive, the lyrics are very motivating, just read this: “…finding our way of production, inability not worth a try, going for perfection, thinking progressive, that’s the way I have to go…”, wordless; musical parts perfectly made, turns faster and then return to the original rhythm; we need more music like this.
Eleanor Rigby, I don not know why they played a Beatles’s cover, but they made an extraordinary work, is a thousand times better than the original.
Zephaniah, another top song, lasts twelve minutes, on this track they showed their talent, Burkhart is the first to show it, fantastic notes, keys and orchestration by Stephan, Olaf Appears with his ability, distortion by Boris, Oliver’s feeling is moving, an entire musical system.
There is Love at the End, awesome ballad, painful, dark; Stephan plays with a lot of sentiment, Oliver made his part with the voice, Burkhart sounds great, no electric guitar and no drums, extraordinarily interpreted, I think there is not better way to close an album (with a ballad).
Another incredible band from Germany, they have a marked influence from Dream Theater, five members, Roland Stoll, vocals; Wolfgang Kerinnis, guitars; Jan Vacik, keyboards; Benno Schmidtler, bass and Michael Schwager, Drums; but at this time only Wolfgang remains in the band, the rest leave it; Wolfgang is the brain from Dreamscape, he will join a new band, like Marcel from Suncaged, but changes in line up is nothing new for Wolfgang, there are a lot of Dreamscape’s past members.
5th Season, their best album, nine songs, more than 63 minutes of magnificent Teutonic progressive metal; the album begins with Fed Up With, good song, I like the drums and the vocals, also guitars are great, the rhythms are very progressive; Borderline, the keyboards and the drums are the most notorious instruments on this song, the guitar solo is fine, but the first two songs from the long play are not the best; 5th Season; lasts almost 15 minutes, starts with guitar harmonies that reminds me Voices from DT, the vocals are fantastic, drums are very technical, bass that follows the drums, guitar and keys grand solos, heavy and progressive parts, reflexive lyrics, this song gets everything; Déjà vu, top song,starts incredibly, perfect prog, heavy guitar chords and arrhythmic drums, strong bass, then keys orchestration and vocals, I run races from 10 to 21 km and this song is powerful when I am training or competing, pure musical fuel; magnificent guitar solo followed by perfect prog again, fucking awesome!; Somebody, a self esteemtheme with prog metal music; Phenomenon, another top song,begins with keys, heavy guitar distortion and drums, followed by bass, then, orchestration and prog guitar harmonies, and then vocals appears, but the part that sounds amazingly is the chorus “now it feels, what in means…” is pure fucking prog metal with an enchanting voice, (at the same that Déjà vu, in the run training or competing is truly powerful, recommended!); guitar solo with feeling followed by musical part alike DT and followed by keys solo, the way that they played this song is simply impressive; Different, guitar heaviness with extraordinary double bass followed by piano; sounds like an End of Silence’s track; Point Zero, fine music, starts with piano, keys orchestration, cymbals and bass, followed by acoustic guitar, then electric guitar and drums; one guitar solo, after a minutes another guitar solo followed by one keys solo and followed by another guitar solo, simply brilliant!; Farewell, a good bye ballad, it make us see that say farewell to the loved one is not so hard, the piano is wonderful, there are woman vocals that improves the song; excellent finale for the album; now they are working in new material.
This album really starts off with a bang, an amazing instrumental aptly called (The Monster), so i'm thinking ok, this is going to be awesome, well it's not the case, I find the album deteriorates from there. I was a huge fan of Charlies vox on When Dream And Day Unite, but not so much on this album, I find his voice sounding like a cross between La Brie and Halford.
The songs didnt hold my interest either, I found them rather monotonous, don't get me wrong, these guys are very talented musically, I just found the songwriting was lacking somewhat. I found myself too often saying I've heard all this before!! For sure there will be fans who will love this, and by all means add it to the collection. I just personally wouldn't play it enough to warrant me buying the cd. For fans who want to hear Charlie 1 more time.
Event Horizon en vivo!!! este 12 de junio 2009 en ROCKSTAGE no te lo
pierdas!!, si aun no nos has visto preparate para escuchar el mejor
metal progresivo en Chihuahua, Mexico! rolas de Dream Theater, Symphony
X, Adagio, Angra, Atmosfear, Fates Warning, Mayadome, Darkwater, Circus
Maximus y muchos mas! ROCKSTAGE en independencia 1900 a partir de las
8pm!! no puedes faltar!!!
Third release from this supreme French formation, the debut from their new drummer, Chris Briand, very technical, he makes an extraordinary work, Fred, Vince and John improve as musicians, they sounds better, Frank keeps his brilliant voice,,these guys work so hard in every album, we keep a close communication with them, and all the time they are creating something impressive, outstanding music in the metal scene.
Unreal, nine tracks, almost 50 minutes of metal, a fantastic experience from White Willow to Tomorrow, they created a paranormal atmosphere with their lyrics and these was mixed with the heavy music, powerful and crushing riffs, phantasmagorical piano, keys and orchestrations, strong vocals, they have fascination to create progressive metal, magnificent rhythms, musical parts and solos at the level of the best bands, I can not imagine what they will do in their next albums, there is a lot of talent an creativity from the band members, so we will wait for the live gigs, without a doubt buy it, totally recommended.
Ivory Tower – Subjective Enemy (2008) – Review by Logan Lee
This piece of work (I swear I have tried for almost two weeks) is not really among my favourites, but technically some factors deserved a special attention.
First of all, the lyrics are profound and deep. Emotionally speaking this CD left me with some (good) scars on my mind. It’s kind of a theme album, that put into light the life of a man divided inside himself after a youth of suffering and lack of affect. To protect himself he develops hate and arrogance without being aware of it; as a consequence, all people once near him started to avoid him. Finally, the main character realizes that his dark side is transforming him into some sort of monster and start trying to defeat it. The entire album talks about his struggle and the effects of all the hate that grow inside him..
Besides the lyrics the album did not impressed me. The vocalist presents some clear limitations and the rest of the band is above standard for sure, but they are not presenting a slice of something new.
I might end this review by saying that I saw some wonderful ideas by listening to their songs, but they have to improve their ability to insert it in a less prolix way and maybe consider a change of vocal style.
Nice to hear from you guys! The progpower festival rocked! Thanks for the support! It was awsome to play for you all. Hope you got your money`s worth when it came to the rock-show:) hehe I will be looking forward to seeing what will come of the mexican Circus Maximus fan club you guys talked about...would be realy really cool! We will see what we can do with the pics you took..... maybe put them in a "on the road" picture folder or something on the web-site:) Anyways, hope you all got safe home to Mexico! Catch you later!