Cynic - The Portal Tapes

Year : 2012
Genre : Easy Listening Anti-Sludge
Label : Season of Mist
Origin : United States
Rating : 9.5 / 10

Buy it now

The Portal Tapes contains music that you can decipher in real time with a grateful set of ears. This is not something that is a "given", as it is natural these days that a disc demands a learning curve. Not THIS baby. It is clear as a crystal, only clearer. The now-full-musculature variant of Cynic's notorious demo session is audio data that has zero concept of strain or lies. Everything I hear on the record is straight from the heart to the heart astral data that manages to convey both dignity and beauty, and not for a single moment I feel like I am being cornered into a -oops - corner to get deprived of my reactionary emotions that the music seeks to toll on me. Cynic "simply" plays the music that they find both honest and beautiful, and, these qualities are reflected in your soul with zero obstacle in the way of the pleasant transfer the album as entity embodies. Read on to find out more about this fine contribution.


The shape of things on this release sounds to me as a special blend of exigent anti-sludge and the best days of Foo Fighters being put on marijuana. The Portal Tapes is a spiritual relative to Wobourn House, only less lethally morose. This Cynic album is capable to present a reverberating listening experience without being fueled of coarse ambitions or showoff-arrogance to do so. It is "just" music - that is exactly the most a music critic expects while optimistic - which has nothing obtrusive in its way at all. Michael Jackson says in an interview that artists tend to get in the way of the music. "Don't get into the way of the music!" - he adds - logically -, and oh, he is so right, in my opinion.

The Portal Tapes LP is a contribution that contains data taken from-, and composed of a natural sonic flow of astral beauty that has a very clear and dainty anatomy to it. Once again : very clear, elegantly simple, but utterly dainty musical anatomy. Track number 7, "Mirror Child", for example, brings to mind Faith No More's Evidence, and I'm pretty sure Mike Patton would sing this song wholeheartedly without a second thought occurring to him in the process.

A set of favorite pastimes of the release are to be mentioned as the premiere defining ingredients of it. Cynic has a superb taste for thrilling harmonic passages, and, so efficient these passages are indeed, that they do not get tedious during the repetitions they are recruited for, quite the contrary : they are used for just the right amount of turns, giving their respective places to another superb follow-up pattern (per motif, of course) that wants to add to its surroundings as opposed to interrupt them with stimuli that is hard to grasp at first. The choruses, the verses all reeking top of the heat easy listening music that is coming from the heart with a natural flow and beauty you can't get around, no matter how hard you try. Okay, the chorus of track number 10 has a little bit too much of Grimes retardation going on, but it is good. (For the exact same reason.) At ultimate value, this here is an instant seducer album and an immediate recommendation.

Rating : 9.5 / 10

GyZ at Bandcamp.

If you want, check out my music

and / or

Buy me beer. Read more!

Max Karon - Will to Exist review

Year : 2012
Genre : Instrumental Progressive Djent
Label : Qapla Productions
Origin : United States
Rating : 9.3 / 10

Listen To It, Get It At :
Max Karon's Facebook Page.

Max Karon is a music producer and audio engineer, releasing his self-created instrumental debut entitled "Will to Exist" under his own name, yet cultivating the eventual agenda to form a real deal band to play this music - with vocals - on live shows in the future. Once you read this review, I hereby urge you to visit Max's Facebook page to check out the music for yourself, but, if you are a musician yourself, then there is another reason to do so, as well : Max Karon is looking for vocalists, and plans to re-release the album with - illogical. surprise. - vocals on it. So, here is the deal : once you start to listen to this instrumental progressive djent monster of an LP, you should always be aware that the fabric of the music has been manufactured with the dormant propensity of vocals being added to it at a later date. Needless to say, finding the flow and the words for the music is an interesting challenge for anyone feeling capable to summon such thoughts and energies. If you think you reign among those individuals, now is your time to prove a point. Guys, let's talk about the music.


Max Karon's debut won't hesitate all that much with knocking you flat on your ass, as the album virtually exhibits no weaknesses as it addresses its flamboyant fascinations on pretty much full cybernetic high octane efficiency throughout its equally rewarding and equally demanding full spin time. The compositions are rabid, mean, extremely intricately varied, - repetitions are virtually non-existent on the debut, so it is safe to say that its complexity is surpassed only by the clinically insane - and conform all the way to the recent epitome-, to the recent primordial character of Meshuggah metal, though it remains interesting to see what kind of music Meshuggah will bring down on consensus with their freshest entry "Koloss", that is expected to be delivered in March, this year.

Max Karon's debut LP demands steep recognition, as it is pretty evident - tautology - that there is tremendous musical thought and work behind the delivery, and, as easy it is to write such a sentence, so rewarding it is to be convinced of the related truth of it, via subjecting yourself to the stimuli by earpower. The respective fabrics of the tracks tend to reveal both a djenty-, both a progressive approach throughout the structures, and the main complementary tool being utilized by Max is to throw in nice high frequency guitars here and there with an ambient character to them. These background-solos, thank God & Co., are exhibiting more of an ornamentic role in the flow than a safety zone notes can be minigunned from towards wankfestland. The djenting does the minigun thing, no problem.

The production is massive, as it sounds like Max Karon is seeking for the most dangerous gravitational sonic pull all the time. In other words, the album finds profound pleasure by exhibiting segments with extremely heavy dosages of thick sounds parked in them, doing all this without ending up in a chaotic catastrophe. The clarity of Thought, the clarity of the Pattern both are revered and approached to as Sacred, and never harmed during the debut. As result of these central defining factors, the release registers and weighs in vastly superior to recent day shameless commercial exploitations of the djent subgenre, and it always is nice to see a diligent, heartfelt take on something, and this is nothing less than that. As such, I will wrap this review up and urge you to check out the debut, as it is in the need of listeners.

Check out Max Karon's Will to Exit at the Official Facebook page

Or download it directly to HD from Mediafire. Link supplied by Max Karon. : http://www.mediafire.com/?2dmu1lvby4q4i97

Rating : 9.3 / 10

If you want, check out my music

and / or

Buy me beer. Read more!

X-Panda - Flight of Fancy review

Year : 2011
Genre : Progressive Melodic Fusion
Label : X-Panda
Origin : Estonia
Rating : 9.8 / 10

Buy it now

Section below quoted from here.

"Band Biography:

X-Panda is a progressive rock and fusion band from Estonia. The band is known for their concerts full of emotion and power - pure pleasure for people who like to dream, imagine and feel. The music of X-Panda will move both experienced musicians and just music lovers, because it is full of surprises and mood changes, sounds, complex rhythms, rhythmic illusions, jazz fusion chord progressions and passages, heavy or cruel guitar riffs and all that altered with heroic film music theme-like melodies that one can sing along.  

X-Panda tries to expand their musical horizon and knowledge by creating technically and musically more entertaining music for themselves in the first place. The band was founded as a one time project for a song competition in april 2009. Founding members were Kaarel Tamra, Risto Virkhausen, Karl-Juhan Laanesaar and Liis Ring. They ended up winning the competition with a song "Linnukesed Siristavad". The feedback for such unusual music approach was extremely positive, so they decided to continue as a band. In August 2009, Tamar Nugis joined X-Panda, replacing Liis Ring on bass. X-Panda has won several competitions, including the title Noortebänd 2010, which is one of the two biggest band competitions held in Estonia. X-Panda has released their debut album Flight of Fancy which can be bought on www.cdbaby.com/cd/xpanda"

Section above from here.

X-Panda's debut full length is easily amidst the most profoundly positive audio experiences you could have this year, and it also marks the second time this diligently nihilistic music review site Noise Shaft ALMOST had to give maximum points at minimum - again. Luckily, I realized that the singing on this otherwise truly stunning LP is pretty "meh" grade, but, do not be afraid, as this is an instrumental spin first and foremost, and a truly amazing one for that. Flight of Fancy, for the most part, is a hyperstellar mindwarp project, and it contains only a little amount of vocal presence when witnessed as a full spin. The primer agenda of the release is that which the official band biography informs you of indeed, namely : to create music that the band members find uncompromisingly entertaining. The analogy of this - current - week emerges once again : to deliver with a clear conscience. Since you won't be given any chance to not-get-, let alone dismiss any part of this gigantic release as alibi, your best bet is to line up all your expectations at the wall, then start this LP and watch them evolve in real time.


It does not matter how finely calibrated your musical receivers are, they will be entertained thoroughly this time, as result of being graced with sonic data that is deliberately engineered with the delight of the positive snob in mind. The music that targets the delight of the positive snob, is not afraid to admit that it seeks to be appreciated, because it knows that all music seeks to be appreciated, no exception.

The reasons X-Panda's Flight of Fancy operates so efficiently, are numerous. One aspect I personally think is focal regarding its grandiose workings, is the fact that this album is not heavy at all. Even when it IS heavy(er), it is not a cumbersome liability to decipher, to spiritually endure, it instead remains clear as a window you can look through, only what you behold might be something more menacing than AH!, looksie, a viewtiful pink flower!. The soulful solo guitar work is an especially important component on the release, as you will often find your awareness tracing a solo since who-knows-how-long-it-has-been-really. These eloquent passages, though central elements, are never the only sights to behold, on the other hand. It is quite safe to say that each and every ingredient of the builds leads an autonomous life and enjoys a valid function in the sonic micro-economy. In titular track, "Flight of Fancy", - reminds one to Joe Satriani's "Flying in a Blue Dream" in character, I don't think accidentally - the fabric exhibits at least 7 complex chords at a simple turnaround, and the bass gives the comfy five for each one of them when they show up.

Music is supposed to be fun at the very least, and, once it is planned, composed and built this seriously and is given the meticulous amount of due work these levels and shapes demand by their mere nature, the results truly emerge as nothing sort of marvelous, beside remaining faithful to the state of still being fun at the core, as well. As noted, the vocals on the release are not too superb, - they are "interesting, you want to try again?" - but at least, there is not much of it on the LP. (It still is better than James LaBrie's horrendous slime rhetorics though, but far from the power and articulation of Anubis Gate's top notch Henrik Fevre, who is the Man in this clean mid-range emotional singing style.)

Yet, from an instrumental point of view, which is the essential attribute of this release, X-Panda's Flight of Fancy is an immediate variant on truly successful sci-fi music that emerges rampant while it consciously and wisely chooses to go easy on the ears. Obtaining a copy should be one of your top priorities, and, as such, the album also is recommended.

Rating : 9.8 / 10

If you want, check out my music

and / or

Buy me beer. Read more!

Odd Logic - Over the Underworld review

Year : 2011
Genre : Progressive Metal
Label : AM Music
Origin : United States
Rating : 9.2 / 10

Buy it now

Deeply underrated American progressive metal squadron Odd Logic comes forth with a monstrous full length that is practically stacked with finely sculpted delicacies from start to finish, despite how this release declares galactic scale war to conquer your very best honest attention via a stupendous running time of 1 hour and 9 minutes. The anatomy of this fine aural contribution reflects the music I "anticipated" - what a terribly, terribly snob word - from the latest Dream Theater - ah!, aaah!, aaaaah! - disc, only, this time the gloom trodden power metal stench I would have been so keen to missing out on in the supersmarmy company of THAT particular album, is nowhere to be found, luckily enough.

This robust, sci-fi tinted Odd Logic statement has wank-free intricacy and tight compositional efforts realized on it pretty much without stop or any blemishes you could valiantly point the index finger on, and, this time, thank God and Co., there is no need to question the progressive nature of the album, either. Odd Logic's Over the Underworld is highly aware of the steeply priced defining qualities of the genre, and that latent-, untold progressive requirement of rabid, yet sober flamboyancy is created and maintained by every single minute of the stimuli. In other words, this full length has immense work in it, and, look! This IS progressive metal, oh my God it really IS that, oh God!!!4

Sure, in an ideal world, you would not need to be staggered about the fact that a progressive metal album actually PROGRESSES, but, recently me, myself and I - along with the guy who is writing this - personally saw examples when Dr. Albanish pop metal is embraced by the delightful deceived as the finest progressive sonic stimuli to grace the silence of recent day cosmoses.

aasjkdfasfasjfjasgfjhasfjabfasdfjas

If it is about entertainment with alleged capacities to shape a soul, - notice : the entertainment that lacks this quality is not even worth its title - then it is not a sane thing to get satisfied with anything less efficient or more abject than others ARE willing to give to you, courtesy of they having both the capacity and the propensity to give it for real. I'm telling all this, because this here is a serious progressive metal album without ANY deceiving tendencies, and the only way it is using to get to the epitome of progression, is leading through JUST that. The only entities on board are the fine music in the company of tight creative power and the rigorously focused work that are fueling it. Guys, let's talk about the music.


In nature, this contribution shows similarities with Arch & Matheos' latest bionic creation, only this time, the beautifully chug-fixated complexity gets a sonic room with more freely-, more playfully positioned spaces in it, as result of tasteful wall of sound quasi-choruses - more on this later - and efficient mini-breakdowns. The release is not at all reluctant to rely on cybernetic synthetizers, and those are looking absolutely vicious when toppling in a timelessly classic and classicly timeless Faith No More fashion the GIGANTIC rumble the album's rhythm guitar is capable to produce. The sound of the rhythm guitar here demands a scientific essay on its own, to be honest : it is ridiculously wide and evil, and sits in a PERFECT place in the mix. This chug produces an almost percussive effect, while having a very sober understanding of its own functions.

As for the song structures, these are inventively, soberly capricious builds with myriads and myriads of defining prime elements per track, which will be much more easy to believe when you consider that the shortest track on this release is 9:15, - saved for a secret track of 1:45 minutes of silence - while the longest weighs in at 20:34, so do not eat chili beans while subjecting yourself to this baby. The well varied anatomic structures of the songs are prone to reveal a honest, thrilling sci-fi vibe riding on its autonomous fixation towards mid-tempo soul grinding, and heft always IS mandatory. And, what is best, once you are accustomed to a great-, restrained mid tempo riff and realize you are given no other choice than to like it, all of a sudden it gets its butt kicked proper by a Pantera-like monster riff that shows its roaring "I hate everyone and everything and now I will fuck you up, too" face around for half a minute or so for good measure. Same is true to the structures of the melodic singing work : verses and choruses are elegantly utilized, but not at relied upon, and this compositional behavior is very interesting to listen to. A narrative stance with healthily belted ringed notes that last for five eternities, are commanding the verse sections, and the choruses/intermessos are bringing the elegant catchy factor in without you being forced to produce a twitch or two at both corners of your mouth. As for the timber, the mood of the vocal contribution, the singing is an exclusively clean, brisk midrange. Soulful and dignified in character, even when deeply restrained and lyrical, no James LaBrie "please sing a handkerchief for me for this, too" factor.

It is worth mentioning that the tremendous rumble the album produces is the result of a noticeable decision to cover the entire content into a quite present - but not at all overshot - reverb effect. This gives the album a cybernetically lush and unforgiving quality that is a superbly thrilling feeling to immense yourself into, and it weighs on the psyche as the french kiss of a black hole, but hell, this exactly what the idea is. If you want to hear progressive metal that fulfills and tastefully flatters-, even worships the extremely high expectation levels of its ruthlessly demanding genre, then picking up Odd Logic's Over the Underworld is top priority, Ladies and Gents.

Rating : 9.2 / 10

If you liked this article, check out my music

and / or

Buy me beer. Read more!

Arch / Matheos - Sympathetic Resonance review

Year : 2011
Genre : Progressive Metal
Label : Metal Blade Records
Origin : United States
Rating : 8.5 / 10

Buy it now

The moniker Arch / Matheos marks the reunion of original Fates Warning members John Arch - mythic vocalist - and renowned guitar abuser Jim Matheos, now supported by Bobby Jarzombek on drums and Joey Vera on bass.

Sympathetic Resonance sounds like a cybernetic Iron Maiden factory set to top-production capacity. This thing is spiky, angry and chuggy as a jogging rhino with its ass on fire, and, at the same time, also manages to define itself as utterly and fluently - on occasion, even pointlessly - melodic, courtesy of John Arch's powerful high frequency vocal presence.

There is so much going on right from the very start that it quickly becomes evident that the record is the result of insanely tall stacks of dozens, dozens and even some more dozens of meticulous working hours, fueling a monolithic testament that keeps relentless enough of a focus on its own nature to triumphantly reach the point on which virtual self-repetition gets enthusiastically greeted as progression. Nah, it was just a percept, and I'm not so sure about it on the third spin.

One thing though, is for sure : Sympathetic Resonance dismisses you immediately once you are not serious about wanting to know it for what it is, and it has 54 minutes of valid, but very elusive audible stimuli in store to get accustomed to first. Read on to find out how this monstrous release declares itself mightily as a space beacon black hole, one that sounds to be more than happy to suck itself into itself, and still feeling jolly good about that.


Sympathetic Resonance feels like a release that the members of this re-union have created for themselves, and there is not much if anything wrong with such a stance, because, if the creators can't enjoy what they are doing, than chances are that the listener won't enjoy it, either. The release is extremely quick and even more persistent to reveal AND repeat its focal mechanic and favorite flow of work, which is to unleash efficient, but - strangely enough - elusive swarms of sonic carpet bombing through a set of well researched mood patterns, and Arch's vocals are riding on those bombs with superb clarity and top of the heat siren-charm, no complaints can be given with a face to be found after. The release still sounds to

triumph valiantly,

or, if you want,

suffer legendarily

as result of being almost constantly ahead of itself in a relentless pursuit of its own super-complexity, bombarding the listener with a new theme on top of the prior new theme that just got abruptly and brutally executed at the spot you wish the band would have investigated further, instead. It is not that you have nothing to hold on to, quite the contrary : you have a MILLION and then some more things to hold on to all the time, but the record expects you to not to trust nor cultivate all too tender sentiments towards any one attraction of it, because what you have been holding on to, will vanish in the next moment. Guaranteed.

This flowing aspect of music, is of course, an absolutely valid one of it, but (one of) my favorite fixation(s) of trying to deliver organic connection between two autonomous musical sequences/entities, sounds to be pretty absent, but, one must admit, inventively absent from this album. Arch / Matheos simply fails to give a damn with two lost holes in it for your sentiments, and this creative behavior demands respect. You will never know what is it to hit you next, you only know that it is about to happen for sure.

All these notions may give you the false impression that they seek to reflect on the album's shortcomings, yet this is not the case at all. The above addressed things are not negative nor positive things of the spin, they are "just" the full musculature focal characteristics of it, traits that guarantee a long term relationship with the record, but have zero doubts whatsoever that you will

INVEST

a massive amount of time into this LP until you can claim a valid understanding of it. With solely chug-related, aggressive super-complexity and some elegant, tender caresses here and there laid out throughout track lengths well above the 10 minute benchmark, Sympathetic Resonance is a monster of a release that comes to you waving a kinetic sledgehammer and expects nothing less than the unconditional worship of the aforementioned chug-centered complexity taken to the extreme - toppled, of course, by top of the heat vocals of the siren kind. If you want to have proper sex with a monster, you need to learn its habits, and there are no shortcuts. Once again : this is recommended for the pairs of serious ears seeking to invest serious time into relentless chug-complexity toppled by soaring, clean vocals, but, for them, this is an immediate premiere choice.

Rating : 8.5 / 10

If you liked this article, check out my music

and / or

Buy me beer. Read more!

Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn of Events review

Year : 2011
Genre : Progressive Rock Metal
Label : Roadrunner Records
Origin : United States
Rating : 8.0 / 10

Buy it now

Fanbase enigma Dream Theater comes forward with a release of fervently stacked ambitions, and the resultant stimuli is no doubt eventful enough of a contribution to assuage a secretive - but not exactly "silentive" - suspicion in the finely calibrated ear that a healthy amount of this delivery is soaked into-, and made out of compositional wizardry, exercised for the mere, grandiose sake of it.

Dream Theater's A Dramatic Turn of Events, not surprisingly, has a highly monstrous level of complexity to it, primarily consisting of its valiant will and granite determination to filter all its moods and favorite fixations through an adventurous approach to music creation. Read on to find more about this flamboyant release, or don't.


Many, but not at all of surprising character are the numbers of paths and emotional postures Dream Theater chooses to thread along on this row of statements. The band exhibits a particular interest in addressing their readiness to deliver on the respective fields of a sanely-, but harshly constrained genre palette. The basic vibes of gloom-trodden power metal, neoclassical sonic spellcasting, synthetic noteburst-parade, hell, even metalcorish undertones and odd time signatures are all part of the game, and everything the group delivers to the table, IS decently delivered and elegantly served.

DUDE?? What do you mean "decently"?? Dream Theater is like : my life!

I mean exactly that. From the point of view of ultimate value though, - check the very sloppily concealed irony herein - Dream Theater's A Dramatic Turn of Events fails to bring any dramatic turns of events to the fray. If you need to convince me that your album is a dramatic turn of events : you are failing. Dream Theater's latest is an accessible, and, as noted, doubtless extremely eventful output, yet also is one that never quite leaves you without the suspicion that some elaborate passages of complexity are simply there so you have something to chew diligently on, and serve no particular function in the actual DNA of the track you are listening to.

The band has a noticeable tendency to summon a pleasant, fluid feel via the simultaneous utilization of various devices suitable to cause aural vibrations, - a surprise! - yet, in actuality, these delicate sonic entities have a very limited field of operation if the mission they have been assigned to, is simply is to connect - in heart - traditional exhibitions of power metal/metalcore/I got the gloom again compositional techniques without end. When the group releases the kind-of experimental Animal for the worship of the oh!, so beautiful fractal-complexity, the result is OK enough, but far far far - and not close to - from great, particularly because these segments tend to lack vocal delivery. They are lacking vocal delivery because the agenda herein <> resonating music that has a story to it, the agenda simply is to

overcreate

layered sonic constructs into existence

because we can.

These are instrumental - uhm - "instrumentalizations", and once these sequences sound elaborately chaotic and chaotically elaborate enough, then the band gives the nod, yet, having a musical message you can spiritually decipher, is of no notable interest for the squad. It is not that this approach has limited potentiality, in fact, it has JUST that. But it already has been done much better recently, with vocals reigning in bloom in the chaos, by bands like Unexpect, see here.

The following matter is one that is prone to radical levels of subjectivity, but me, myself and I, along with the dudette who is writing this, find the lead singer's voice relatively uneventful, and when he is over-emoting in the slower declarations of lyrical aspirations of the record, threads of hairs I did not know I have stand still on my shell. These lyrical statements are reminiscent of the Pink Floydish suffering skills, and frankly, they are pretty efficient at annoying the living death out of me.

Dream Theater's A Dramatic Turn of Events still is a full musculature build with a whole lot of luscious sonic portions to bath your existence in, and its ubiquitous proneness of getting caught rabidly masturbating is as much of a likable defining factor of it as it is its relative hindrance.

Rating : 8.0 / 10

If you liked this article, check out my music

and / or

Buy me beer. Read more!

Symphony X - Iconoclast review

Year : 2011
Genre : Progressive Power Metal
Label : Nuclear Blast
Origin : United States
Rating : 9.2 / 10

Buy it now

Premiere Yngwie Malmsteen product Michael Romeo and band bring you supertight sonic stimuli as result of four years of creative work, declaring extremely convincing reasons to soak your ears in the mecha-polyptic vision the group's latest release to date chooses as its direction to keep the focus on.

Talking about the instrumental portion of this ripe and extremely well chiseled creation, it sounds safe to say that Symphony X's Iconoclast is the mere sound of the music video games like Quake IV should have contained instead of the excuse for the music they got beaten to the death of the aspired mood with. Iconoclast is well researched, crystal clear, accessible-, yet intricate metal music that has a properly vulgar urge to relentlessly submit to all things cyborg, mecha and chrome at - oops - heart. It is nothing wrong at all with an intent to give all things to the cyber to see what music it will spout back at you, and Iconoclast manages to introduce a unique kind of vocal field to succumb to the atmosphere it attempts to picture. Read on to find more, or this Grade 3 Security Warbot will end you in 3, 2, ...


Michael Romeo and Co. took the time and focus to create the intricate cybernetic metal that you secretly - and, well, silently - knew it would be possible, and now, here it is, to you to behold. The instrumental work on these tracks tolerate nothing less than the steepest of recognition. The riffs, while accessible at heart, show constant tendency to offer elegant, brave and effective variations of themselves without any occasion to lose their pure musculature focus on, and the rhythmic changes always will take you to a field you can regard as a place worth checking out, considering how the preceding musical developments decided to take you there. The compositions are eventful, flamboyant, extremely complex and keep a focus on sole, super-solid guitar work. It is a privilege to hear. Samples or industrial noises are not being utilized to make you believe that : "this is cyba', dudette, because it is sampled", it is all the music's agenda to make you believe it is. Guitar solos are one of the favorite fetishes IF not the favorite of a proper guitar psycho, and Michael Romeo, riding on 111% Malmsteen-Octane influence, - it is very indicative of Romeo's Malsteen fetish that the title track contains a duel between a soloing guitar and a synth, "Far Beyond the Sun" much recently????,,, - no doubt knows how to offer a solo that commits the Fatality - Flawless Victory against your musical awareness.

With some exceptions of brilliance, only acceptable and moderate-at-best intellectual efforts were put into the lyrics though, delivered along pretty traditional power metal singing language. This decision of giving progressive power metal a good rep by rendering a sci-fi atmosphere instead of the "we fight to the end and we have swords!" fantasy vibe, shows mixed, nevertheless always charming results. It is only that sometimes you will find the stench of meat sweat whereas you hoped to touch a set of dainty, lethal cybernetic fingers. The melodic arches of the singed lines sometimes - and not frequently, logically enough - refrain from giving the aforementioned cybernetic middle finger to everyday average - nevertheless solid - power metal singing, and, even the vibe of fantasy related power metal will surface on the record on some occasions. The opening track is a good example : while the song itself is a monumental mechanoid declaration consisting of riffs that can nuke a secret military base, a power metalish "we! are! strong! we! will! stand! and! fight!" simply "had" to be incorporated into its pure titanium fabric. It is not to say that it is bad - it simply seems/sounds to be hyper-cheese, considering its much more elegant surroundings. It is more efficient when you FEEL this inner stance, and it simply loses from its efficiency when you NEED to state it. Why harass and state the Evident?

Addendum to this review on 2015. 6. 25. : The hooks on this release could be praised much, but could not be praised TOO much. I have heard appalling opinions on how Russel Allen could not come up with "memorable melodies" and whatnot, frankly, I have no idea which TV show these individuals are watching. Do yourself a favor and listen to this album in separate sittings, - I do not suggest to blow yourself up, I mean, not until I'm there to videotape it (joking, I have a terrible senCe of humor and null concept of proper typing) - and you will hear that pretty much each and every song has a magnificent hook incorporated - even the "we! are! strong! we! will! fight!" - cheesefest becomes tolerable. 

But check out the hooks/structure in songs like: "Prometheus"! - total melodic Pantera! Very uplifting, and filled with a galaxy of bullballs. How about the hook of "Light up the Night"? - simply amazing! Quite reminiscent of the best songwriting contained on Malmsteen's vocal-filled tracks - check out "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" for a truly badass Yngwie Malmsteen vocal song - as the vibe is definitely power metal, but with a furious vibe, the vide power metal works the best with! The whole structure indeed is coated in flames and raging hopelessness. The vibe is of an individual who decided to embrace the hopelessness, and then pulls it to a clinch and jumps off the cliff - that is crumbling, anyway, so no point in not doing it - to die with it. Embrace the leftover-dignity when you have to die, or die miserably, so in their soul everyone will secretly think that you suck so severely saggy goat tits. Anyway, another fantastic hook!

And the record just keeps throwing these amazing hooks at you, that are easy to not notice at first, simply as result of the length of the record. The length indeed is prone to induce attention fatigue, so the release is definitely best listened to on separate occasions. Here is another hook-, in fact, a whole structure that I love from this release: "Lords of Chaos", which contains a hook that is the anti-thesis of the hook I have deconstructed before that, which was "Light Up the Night". In "Lords of Chaos", the prospects are idealistic, you and Co. skim the multidimensional surface of the existence field as cosmic immortals, doing whatever you desire with whoever you desire, but doing it with 111% efficiency, because you have potentials enough to be able to do that - what's not to like? Also notice the verse structure in the song, how the guitars going kind of melodic Meshuggah on your hide! Allan Russel's melodic vocals riding on their skillfully warped sonic volumetrics with ballsy elegance and efficiency. Fantastic ideas all over that are very easy to notice if you pay attention, and very easy to miss out on if you are exhausted as result of attention fatigue. Which is a real thing, and it affects you the more you listen to something. (OR someone, oh baby.) 

Another hooks that are very strong: "Heretic", and its relative sibling, "Bastards of the Machine" - these two are similar, but quite-quite decent. I very much like the hook of "When All Is Lost", too, even though the verse is a little but too cheesefest for me, - and for you, too - because the lyrics in the verse do not make particular sense. "I hope you understand. Someday." - oh boy, I hope I won't, EVER. But it is OK, I have no problem if and when Russel Allen - who is a superb singer in my opinion - comes up with alibi lines from time to time. He and his peers had the assumption that a fathery "I hope you understand, someday" is a line that simply never fails. Oh, you guys got that ALL wrong. For a proper music snob, a line like "I hope you understand, someday" : is an immediate and timeless fail. Russel also has this fascinating Angel-seeking fixation, probably as result of cultural conditioning. Good luck escaping THAT one! (Cultural conditioning, not the angel or Russel). On his solo release, "Atomic Soul" - a fantastic record I must say, because he exhibits his raw voice without any and all effect fuckaroundery, an in-your-face, raw, melodic hard rock release with superb compositions - so he has this "Angel" song, with lyrics along the train of thought: "Angel, where are you now, no one can save me, only you know how" - which is fine, fine. But he has a 2007 -first of a series of - collaboration with another performer - Lande - and there is a song on that release which features quite similar trains of thoughts. My point is that Russel has his own share of inner fixations, which is totally acceptable, but, provided we are yet to see a third occasion by which Russel is searching for the Angels, we will have to conclude that he is not doing something right, otherwise he would already have found them, correct? Or it might be the simple case that Russel secretly has them, and only PRETENDS to be looking for them, which, once again, is totally acceptable, as you do not have to be miserable in order to be eligible to pretend that you are, for the fun of it, for the art of it, for the entertainment of it. 

There are some other hooks on the release yet that I like, too! "Dehumanized" has a superb structure all over, and notice the verse, as well: kind of Pantera vocals. A nod to Pantera is given in the song "Reign in Madness" : the middle section is so obviously and admittedly built on Pantera's "Walk" that no copyright holder would every think of voicing this fact, because it is an obvious tribute to Dimebag, and the gesture is beautiful enough to reign galaxies above considerations of copyrights and stuff. Wow, a listening to it and tears filled my eyes! Shit, Cthulhu is here with a beer! Addendum on 2015.06.25 ends, article continues based on the thoughts formed on 2011.07.25. 

Many things could have been said about this outing yet, but, ultimately, it still remains a disc that luckily seeks to offer tons of luscious, integral and straightforward stuff to be listened to, and not stuff to offer layered lamentations about. Iconoclast is an instrumentally brilliant experience, which though has a tame, but noticeable tendency to deliver lyrical content that is easy to laugh out loud out at, regardless how it meant to be taken ice cold serious. On the other hand, some lines and related cyber-thoughts are pretty solid, but these are rare to find. The intricacy and beauty of the music will smash you anyway, so there will be not much time to whine too fervently about those. This easily would be a 9.5 or even above if to feature legit thoughts all over the place. Yet, the music is so good that it would be a 9.0 even with Kermit rapping on the tracks.

Rating : 9.2 / 10

If you liked this article, check out my music

and / or

Buy me beer. Read more!