Dream Theater - Distance Over Time (2019) Album Review

This is in fact my major metal album in 2019. I rarely listened to full album lately, so this new Dream Theater's album, Distance Over Time, sounds quite fresh. As we all know, this progressive metal band is reaching their "late year" with fourteen albums so far, last one counted. Dream Theater fully aware of their creativity struggle. As I read their reviews elsewhere, the band works hard to create new sounds, including putting the band together in solitude studio album to produce new ideas. The result is Distance Over Time sounds faithful to Dream Theater, there are new ideas in the album but for regular listeners, there might be too little.

Statistically speaking first, Distance Over Time is : the first album that run "just" an hour, the last one are Images and Words (1992) and When Dream and Day United (1989). No 10 minutes songs, kind of a relieve. This is a "short" album that hopefully able to continued Dream Theater legacy. This is also the first album to have Mike Mangini material, he write lyric for Room 137.

The album started with Untethered Angel, it is a mixed of As I Am with several other DT songs, so a safe play from the band to kick off the album. Barstool Warrior is the point in the album where they starting to sound fresh, imo. The songs are more memorable instead of some "generic" progressive metal riff in the first three songs. The two following songs are contributed by their rhythm department, Room 137 must be influence by Mike Mangini, while S2N is started with blasting bass intro, both are added different color to the album. Out of Reach is their slow song with sweet guitar works by Petrucci. Although the album finished with another generic song as in Pale Blue Dot, but the bonus track Viper King is another interest of the album. Viper King sounds in blues-a-like style, written by La Brie, which is a cool track in deed. Jordan Rudess just having fun with his old school organ solos in this song.

Distance Over Time is another continuation of Dream Theater. Nothing is lost in this album, yet if you expected a major outstanding "benchmark song" to re-introduce Dream Theater, there are not much also. One must respected that even though this is their fourteenth album, they still play their game in very intense composition technically. The technical skill displayed in Distance Over Time is still f*** mind blowing. Enjoy this while the band still active, in the distance over, we might not able to hear this any more.

Dream Theater - Distance Over Time (2019) 
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1. Untethered Angel (6:14)
2. Paralyzed (4:17)
3. Fall Into The Light (7:04)
4. Barstool Warrior (6:43)
5. Room 137 (4:23)
6. S2N (6:21)
7. At Wit's End (9:20)
8. Out Of Reach (4:04)
9. Pale Blue Dot (8:25)
10. Viper King (4:00) (Bonus Track)

Total Time: 60:51

- James LaBrie / Vocals
- John Petrucci / Guitars
- John Myung / Bass
- Jordan Rudess / Keyboards
- Mike Mangini / Drums

Psychotic Symphony - Sons of Apollo (2017)

Mike Portnoy had assembled several super groups, and joined many as well. His adventure post-Dream Theater era are as followed: Adrenalin Mob (thrash metal), The Winery Dogs ('80s glam rock) and Flying Colors (blues hard rock). As for sideman, he hired by supergroups, most notably in Neil Morse (prog-Christian metal) and Metal Allegiance (mainly thrash metal led by David Ellefson) as far to Twisted Sisters (glam rock). It mean there are various music done by Portnoy that should suit one or two of your prefered metal genre.

However, here come his next project, Sons of Apollo. Firstly, just by hearing the name, this is the band that suggested  something really huge, something spectacular. It is indeed a supergroup that everyone should anticipate. The members are as followed : Derek Sherinian in keyboards, and also look likely a co-founder. Billy Sheehan in bass, Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal in guitar. The singer is Jeff Scott Soto. A solid formation with everybody are top gun in their respective instrument. Portnoy, Sheehan and Sherinian was already jamming together several years ago in non-album project, together with guitarist Tony MacAlpine.

Their debut album released this Octhober 2017, titled "Psychotic Symphony". After several days running the disc, I am pretty satisfied with all of their songs. Sons of Apollo might be Mike Portnoy's closest rendition to Dream Theater. In fact, with Derek Sherinian on board, they already 2/5th of Dream Theater. "Gods of the Sun", the first song, is very DT in entrance. It's somewhere fit in Systematic Chaos era of the old band. It's a very good call for opening song, an instant showcase of their five member power in this eleven minutes song. "Coming Home" is their expected hit. The band put their luck in this "Youtube-friendly" song. "Coming Home" is a progressive metal blue print with friendly melody. It has all the elements, keyboard opener, pumping low frequency bass. Ron Thal is showing his double necks guitar, one is a fretless neck that produced distintive guitar solo.

With Derrick Sherinian as co-leader, the songs mostly demonstrated his instrument. "Labyrinth" started with catchy symphonic string layers. Jeff who in the '80s famous as Yngwie Malmsteen front man was knowned as melodic metal and AOR singer. In Labyrinth we enjoyed Jeff Scott Soto's transformation into progressive metal vocalist. "Alive" is a darker piece that opened with clean guitar intro that heavily chorus-ed. We also listen to a short arranged of keyboard instrumental in "Figaro's Whore". Sherinian is playing Deep Purple-ish hammond organ and this continued to the next song "Divine Addiction". Finally the band finale is in "Opus Maximus". A ten minutes epic that most of the composition performed as instrumental song.

Sons of Apollo is indeed an Apollonian works. Mike Portnoy once again returned to his most celebrated genre, the progressive metal of the late 2017 era. For the guitarist, Ron Bumblefoot Thal is an underated shredder. He actually haven't really appeared in major band, except for Guns N' Roses perhaps. Billy Sheehan prove he done well in this game as well, as we often associated him in hard rock scene only. Psychotic Symphony is a big entrance for the big boys. We only hope this project continued as stable line up, with more quality music coming from these maesteurs.

Psychotic Symphony - Sons of Apollo (2017)
Buy it Here - Amazon

 1. God of the Sun
  2. Coming Home
  3. Signs of the Time
  4. Labyrinth
  5. Alive
  6. Lost in Oblivion
  7. Figaro's Whore
  8. Divine Addiction
  9. Opus Maximus

Jeff Scott Soto (Trans Siberian Orchestra, Talisman, ex-Journey, ex-Yngwie Malmsteen, ex-Axel Rudi Pell) – lead vocals
Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal (Art of Anarchy, ex-Guns N' Roses) – guitar
Billy Sheehan (The Winery Dogs, Mr. Big, ex-David Lee Roth) – bass
Derek Sherinian (Black Country Communion, ex-Dream Theater, ex-Alice Cooper, ex-Platypus, ex-Yngwie Malmsteen, ex-Kiss) – keyboards
Mike Portnoy  (The Winery Dogs, Transatlantic, Flying Colors, Neal Morse Band, ex-Dream Theater, ex-Adrenaline Mob, ex-Avenged Sevenfold) – drums

Sons of Apollo - Psychotic Symphony album review

Anthriel - Transcendence (2017)

In year 2010, progressive metal fans surprised by the arrival of Anthriel, a young group from Finland. Their debut album, The Pathway, was a success. The quartet were at least bookmarked and put under watch list by the fans. However, it takes about seven years to continued what they have done. Transcendence is Anthriel's second studio album, with seven years gap after The Pathway. The good news is, the album is meet the expectations.  In Transcendence, all eight tracks displayed the spirit of traditional progressive metal genre as we often hear way back then. Transcendence included the feel of classic Dream Theater as in their Scene from A Memory-era way back to Queensryche. The band put every good things we hear from other prog band such as Circus Maximus and Symphony X.

The album building up with "The Calling", an introduction song similar to Dream Theater's Regression song. The Calling transformed the atmosphere into Anthriel's world.  This followed up with "Under Burning Skies", an heavy song that connected the classic progressive riff and strong oriental theme played with Indian-like voices. The journey continued to "Oath Of Darkness" that run in lengthy eleven minutes. This is where the conceptual theme being discussed in detail. In the whole eleven minutes, the main theme occurred sporadically to serves as connecting theme. "Siren's Song" is also a very progressive one. After the keyboard lick, a grooving guitar riffs quickly takes over. Only several listening, the riff from this song will stayed in your head.

"Painted Shadows" is an Yngwie Malmsteen inspired song. The neo classical feel brings us back to the era of Yngwie's Trilogy Suite era. Interestingly, the band decide to titled the next song "Rhapsody of Fire", kind of homage to the Italian band. The song itself is very Symphony X rather than RoF. "My Dark Morning Star" is another odd-metered song serves as a bridge to the 19 minutes finale, "Fallen Souls".

Transcendence is an awesome follow up to Anthriel's first album. The music styles did not change much. The only notable differences is,  The Pathway still gives us a power metal feel, while  Transcendence is a rather dark one. As any good album out there, the power of this album is their strong song writing. The quartet put an awesome works of musicianship as well, as this album comprised of many awesome details. This is a good start to get into this band for those who haven't listen to them yet. It will be a challenge for the band to put the next followed up album, but in the meantime, let's enjoy this

Metal Harem class: ********* nine stars out of ten

Buy it Here - Amazon
Anthriel - Transcendence (2017)

1. The Calling
2. Under Burning Skies
3. Oath Of Darkness
4. Siren's Song
5. Painted Shadows
6. Rhapsody Of Fire
7. My Dark Morning Star
8. Fallen Souls

- Timo Niemistö / Guitar
- Antti Horttana / Bass
- Henrikki Markkula / Drums
- Simo Silvan / Vocals

Ayreon - The Source (2017)

From what started only as experimental project, Ayreon has now become one of most respected metal opera in the industry. One of the most waited as well. We have reach the ninth studio album of Ayreon, an 2017 release that simply called The Source. As we know, each album consisted of complex music in the spirit of metal opera with multiple story and plots. When I first listen to Ayreon, (it was The Human Equation album), it took days to fully grab the whole music. In short, when Ayreon album is coming up, it's a busy day in the office to write a review. (See The Theory of Everything review here)

Ayreon wouldn't be a metal opera without Arjen Lucassen Justice League-like recruitment. Arjen just picked the greatest musician in the list and put them in task to finish his album. Sounds pretty good. So, before reviewing the music, we should satisfied our eyes with a list of musicians invited here in The Source . As listed below, there are recurring characters such as James LaBrie as The Historian, Tobias Sammet, Tommy Karevik and so on. On the musician listed, we got a boost from big names such as Paul Gilbert. Seriously, this is kind of a blend between Arrowverse and Marvel universe when we can combine the world of Dream Theater and Mr.Big and Guthrie Govan, in one band.

Vocalists
    James LaBrie (Dream Theater) as The Historian
    Tommy Karevik (Kamelot, Seventh Wonder) as The Opposition Leader
    Tommy Rogers (Between the Buried and Me) as The Chemist
    Simone Simons (Epica) as The Counselor
    Nils K. Rue (Pagan's Mind) as The Prophet
    Tobias Sammet (Edguy, Avantasia) as The Captain
    Hansi Kürsch (Blind Guardian) as The Astronomer
    Mike Mills (Toehider) as TH-1
    Russell Allen (Symphony X) as The President
    Michael Eriksen (Circus Maximus) as The Diplomat
    Floor Jansen (Nightwish, ex-After Forever) as The Biologist
    Zaher Zorgati (Myrath) as The Preacher
Production
    Arjen Anthony Lucassen - production, mixing, recording
    Yann Souetre - cover art and booklet
Musicians
    Arjen Anthony Lucassen - electric and acoustic guitars, bass guitar, keyboards etc.
    Ed Warby - drums
    Joost van den Broek (ex-After Forever) - piano
    Ben Mathot - violin
    Maaike Peterse (Kingfisher Sky) - cello
    Jeroen Goossens (ex-Pater Moeskroen) - flute, wind instruments
    Paul Gilbert - guitar solo
    Guthrie Govan (The Aristocrats, ex-Asia) - guitar solo
    Marcel Coenen (Sun Caged) - guitar solo
    Mark Kelly (Marillion) - synthesizer solo

Now the music is based on one of Ayreon universe. This is believe to be the prequel to a storyline that ended in 01011001 album. Well, short of J.K. Rowling temptation to write Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them thing. By the way, we can simply ignore the narration and started enjoying the musics. Admit it or not, even though all the progressive metal band try to do something out of the box, they always sounds as what they are.  We kind of easily distinguished Arjen Lucassen works. His melody is prominent to acknowledged. The first couple of notes in the first opening song "The Day That the World Breaks Down" .already revealed who's the artist before we read the cover. This is not to say that the music will be repeating the work prior, but with this "limited exploration" come another 87 minutes of adventure.

The Source opened up with that song which last 12:56 minutes. The song simply divided in two big section that cut in the "01110100 01110010 01110101 01110011 01110100 01010100 01001000 00110001" lyric sung by TH-1 (Michael Mills). The second section of The Day That the World Breaks Down started with a nice bass grove with a lyric revealing more about the story. The second interesting point is in the song "Everybody Dies". This is kind of Queen cross over with Dream Theater breed. Jump to "All That Was", we got female voices in this song. All That Was is the real first de javu we have. I swear I listened to this melody before, a very good amnestic experience by composer Arjen. For those who love power metal, "Run! Apocalypse! Run!" is one of catchy tunes. The other song that having strong guitar riff can be found in "Aquatic Race". Then come "The Dream Dissolves" and most significant in "Deathcry of a Race" which having Jethro Tull-like flute tunes. "Into the Ocean" is very Rainbow-like of '80s hair metal sounds. Think this is one of my favorite from the album. In the final parts, after several "filler" songs, the last moment is in "Journey to Forever". The plot twister a mandolin sounds for sure. The album ended with "March of the Machines", a robotic sound song. The album very much ended in a hanging plot in the style of Game of Thrones. Or perhaps this should continued in one of Ayreon past album. I having confirmed it yet. See, a busy day in the office.

Imagine there is a metal version of La La Land. Ayreon's The Source is not only the La La Land of progressive metal, this is the Star War double trilogy of prog metal. There are enough music composition for every scenes and details. Even after passing nine studio albums, this album is in the same quality as their predecessor.  Grab this and listen to the story prior the destruction of human being, in the place far from solar system.

Metal Harem class : ********* nine stars out of ten

Buy it Here - Amazon

Disc 1
1. The Day That the World Breaks Down
2. Sea of Machines
3. Everybody Dies
4. Star of Sirrah
5. All That Was
6. Run! Apocalypse! Run!
7. Condemned To Live

Disc 2
1. Aquatic Race
2. The Dream Dissolves
3. Deathcry of a Race
4. Into the Ocean
5. Bay of Dreams
6. Planet Y Is Alive!
7. The Source Will Flow
8. Journey To Forever
9. The Human Compulsion
10. March of the Machines

Narnia - Narnia (2016) Album Review

There was a moment in Christian metal world where several bands co-exist together. The bands that storming this area included, Rob Rock, Impellitteri, Golden Resurrection, Divinefire, ReinXeed (although they are not really a christian metal band), further to German Pascua band. Along this cross breeding cage, there are two musicians Carl Johann Grimmark and vocalist Christian Liljegren. Both had been around the Christian metal realm with those bands mentioned above.. Taken a name from the famous C.S.Lewis novel, they found  Narnia and wanted this band to be at least three styles in their veins: progressive , neo-classical and christian metal altogether. History seen them as successful collaboration, releasing several albums that considered ground breaking in the genre : Awakening (1998) up to The Great Fall (2003). The band suddenly disbanded after T.G.F. which considered their best. A quick reunion was found in 2009 and thus born Course of a Generation (2009), but the band taking a step diverted from their previous styles and also Christian step aside as vocalist replaced by German Pascua.

For seven years later, in today 2016, Narnia reunited the two founders, C.J. Grimmark and Christian Liljegren to released their new, seventh studio album self titled Narnia. Narnia 2016 is a returned to their root, progressive christian metal full of shred guitar works. For example the first song "Reaching for the Top" the drum intro almost mimicking their song "Nothing to Lose" from T.G.F. Reaching for the Top  started up with classic four bars guitar riffs then we greet by Christian voices. The song surely set up the elements of Narnia musics : sustained string layers in background, harmony choruses and many muscular progressive power chords. "I Still Believe" is simple melodic metal that easily remember by first time listener and it is, well, very melodic. On "Thank You" the band downgrade the locomotive gears to middle tempo and allowed passenger to enjoy a solemn song that really shine Christian's vocal quality. We also have music video for "Messengers", which a strong song with creative structure, inventive guitar chords and demiurgic song writing.

In speaking about lyric, the Christianity theme is their main inspiration. However a lyrics :
".... man kinds who do you follow,
 maybe He comes tomorrow...."  - Who Do You Follow
is simple yet fit the music well.

In general, Narnia is a strong returned from the band. Song are in extremely high quality. Carl Johann is re-nown guitar virtuoso, his works in this album is in heavenly standard that will satisfy all guitar fans. Is anything, the album is also closely similar to Christian Liljgren other band, Golden Resurrection, just slightly less neo-classical compared to them. If you really into Christian melodic metal, Narnia 2016 is a definitely strong album to have. In short, this is the album for both prog metal, believers and non.

Metal Harem class ********** nine stars out of ten

Narnia - Narnia (2016)
Buy it Here - Amazon

1. Reaching for the Top
2. I Still Believe
3. On the Highest Mountain
4. Thank You
5. One Way to the Promised Land
6. Messengers
7. Who Do You Follow?
8. Moving On
9. Set the World On Fire
10. Miracle (bonus)

Christian Liljegren - lead vocals
Carl Johan Grimmark - guitars
Martine Harenstam - keyboards
Andreas Johansson - drums
Andreas Olsson - bass

Theocracy - Ghost Ship (2016)

Ghost Ship is Theocracy's long waited third studio album. As we enlightened in 2011, Theocracy burn down the road of mediocre with their album "As the World Bleeds". It is regarded as their breakthrough, the album pulled out lots of epic progressive metal tunes. They can be heard mixing the best elements of power metal, metalcore, thrash metal all the way into one umbrella in progressive metal.  To get it even intrigue, they baptized themself as Christian metal, hence the band's name suggesting. And their Christian themes are the strong one. Ghost Ship is under heavy pressure to get the band moved on from "As the World Bleeds", and the fans wait five years for it.

The wait is certainly worth it. Ghost Ship can be listen straight out of your darkest night and still it will sounds marvelous. There are no important steer turning of styles from their past. The only minor elements missing is their reduction of symphonic metal elements. The first song is "Paper Tiger" confirmed this. Instead of doing slow symphonic build up as in their song "I AM", Paper Tiger starts immediately with drum roll followed by melodic intro. Along five minutes of this song is the elements of power-thrash and progressive metal. Having power choruses is still their biggest selling point. The transition of the 2nd song is smooth, "Ghost Ship" elevated the atmosphere into darker nuances. Once should mentioned Matt Smith's clean singing is one of the trademark in Theocracy's music. "The Wonder of It All" is their faster cut. It is a double guitar riffs, as played by their axeman Val Allen Wood and Jonathan Hinds. Both trying to repeated some monumental ideas from "As the World Bleeds".

Theocracy also fluent in creating power ballad. "Around the World and Black" is their song in moderato time marking. Which leads us to their allegro-presto songs as in "Stir the Embers" and "A Call to Arms", For their finale, it is traditionally longest song, an almost ten minutes "Easter".

Ghost Ship is an album as expected from these amazing talents. Though the album happened to not repeat the ultimate epic as in "As the World Bleeds", all songs can easily absorbed as parts of their fantastic repertoire. Fans of Dream Theater will simply familiar with all their twisted progressive arrangements. Their double guitars added bits of Megadeth also. Theocracy is pacifying all the best to created their own musics. I suggested those who never listened to Theocracy to back cataloged with "As the World Bleeds" to have the best from "Ghost Ship". For longtime fans, the embers is ready to stir!

Metal Harem class : ********* nine stars out of ten


Theocracy - Ghost Ship (2016)
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1.Paper Tiger
2.Ghost Ship
3.The Wonder of It All
4.Wishing Well
5. Around the World and Back
6. Stir the Embers
7. A Call to Arms
8. Currency in a Bankrupt World
9. Castaway
10. Easter

Matt Smith-Vocals
Val Allen Wood-Lead Guitar
Jonathan Hinds-Guitar
Jared Oldham-Bass

Levin Minnemann Rudess - From the Law Offices (2016)

This is the 2nd album by the trio gentlemen of progressive metal. From the camp of prog rock is Tony Levin who bassist in King Crimson and Peter Gabriel, if you would call it progressive rock. His jamming buddy are Jordan Rudess and Marco Minnemann. Jordan and Tony already have jamming history in Liquid Tension Experiment (LTE), a mirror project of Dream Theater back in the day of Mike Portnoy. Interestingly is the duo pairing with Marco Minnemann. We all know Marco. He played in a lot of other project in similar style to this record. Marco closely "encounter" with Jordan and Dream Theater in the famous 7 drummers audition for Portnoy replacement. So I guess all the trio gentlemen already has bite of chemistry before they decided to do recording. Their first debut in 2013 was quite successful and accepted by the community. "From the Law Offices" is the follow up of that album.  From the Law Office follow closely the spirit of that album. This record is all about progressive metal, unlimited creativity and out of the world improvisation skill.

There are sixteen tracks on the album, enough to fill up of your day with quality music. The first track "Back to the Machine" is a cheekily starter. The song built up from simple riff. It is a good song that demonstrated how the drum going to respond in this simple melodic. After Levin and Marco setting up the basis , the main role is played by Jordan, who going to lay down all the melodies of the song. This basic formula is what defined the essence of trio LMR. As the second song come in, "Ready, Set, Sue" is much more "complicated". This song is set in funk, prog and techno feel, enjoyable mix. "Riff Splat" turn the highlight role to the bass. A loud overdrived bass making this song quite muscular. Although this album did not included any guitarists, the present of guitar can be heard in "Marseille" and "Balloon". The rest of songs done in similar fashion, tense improvisation and also lots of innovation.

This records is for prog fans that combined the fans base of three different world. From King Crimson to Dream Theater to Kreator, well, it was Marco's band after all. From the Law Offices followed up the trend of joining big names in trio setup. This is a great addition to similar project such as the Aristocrat, LTE, the Winery Dogs and so on.

Metal Harem class: ********* eight stars out of ten

Buy it Here - Amazon
Levin Minnemann Rudess - From the Law Offices (2016)

01. Back to the Machine
02. Ready, Set, Sue
03. Riff Splat
04. What is the Meaning?
05. Marseille
06. Good Day Hearsay
07. Witness
08. Balloon
09. When the Gavel Falls
10. The Verdict
11. Free Radicals
12. Magistrate
13. Shiloh's Cat
14. The Tort
15. Testimony
16. Habeas Porpoise
17. The Tort (Ver. 2xb-74)

Line Up:
Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel, King Crimson) - Bass, Cello, Chapman Stick,
Marco Minnemann (Joe Satriani, The Aristocrats) - Drums, Guitars
Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater) - Keyboards

Dream Theater - The Astonishing (2016)

Here comes the thirteen studio album from Dream Theater. As with all the buzz we known so far, yes this is a concept album, a double CD it would be. Since Metropolis Part 2 - Scenes From a Memory, there hadn't any "proper" concept album from the prog giant. So, this will be some short of reboot to their collections, after half dozen of stand alone prog album that to some fans, almost a variation to each others. The Astonishing is their new title. It will be a concept album totally sketches out from John Petrucci's visions, he is the main creator of the ideas. Set in future timeline, the good news is the premise of the storyline is quite awesome. In short, we got to familiar with the story idea in their song "The Gift of Music" :

Far in the distant future,
Beyond the pages of our time.
Cold blooded wicked tyrants,
Threaten the freedom of mankind.
.....
While their secluded leader thrives
We are living day to day
Forced to bear the lion’s share
People just don’t have the time for music any more.
And no one seems to care
....
My brother Gabriel, is all the hope we need.
.....
Music is the gift he brings,
The songbird stops to listen when he sings.

This is the story about in the future-where, music no longer served by human but by machine. The only hope is a rebel musicians, supposedly metal band,  trying to bring back the good old days of music. To think about it, this is an explosive storyline.

The Astonishing is also fully set in their official website , where you can check characters and maps of the land. There will be eight characters, Gabriel, Emperor Nafaryus, Arhys, Faythe, Daryus, Empress Arabelle, Evangeline and Xander. Guys, this is the Game of Throne of progressive metal.

Musical itself, the album is total astonishing. From the opening scene of "Descent of the NOMACS", the band introduce the machine-like sounds to accommodate the music side of the machine. "Dystopian Overture" is their first officially overture song form after so many lightyears since Overture 1928. The combination of melodic (human) music vs industrial (machine) "organized sounds" is the main theme of this instrumental track. From this point, we are set into a more than two hours of music journey. The notable aspect of The Astonishing is their usage of more orchestra sounds. Jordan Rudess has a busy days composing all sort of keyboards parts. He is utilizing larger voices from trumpet to strings to disc screeching sounds. The album credit listed David Campbell as arranger for orchestra and choir.  Mike Mangini happened to admit the album blew his mind, indeed he need to added another 34 composition into his drumming memories. Luckily, the album do not required Mike M to put drums in more forefront, as with the last album. Indeed the album highlighted in the song itself and to the story line. With this, James LaBrie got to imposing himself into eight different characters. A bit out of our luck, Dream Theater do not have the tradition of inviting guest vocalist. Since it will be a cool idea if The Astonishing followed some mainstream trend by inviting guest singers to perform their characters. John Myung, as always, stayed in background. I wondered when Dream Theater going to use their "secret weapon", I guess we must wait for the next album where we can hear John Myung even more. John Petrucci himself creating many more Dream Theater riffs that we should remember. The Astonishing comprise many John's new idea, so do not worry about listening the same dear riffs.

The highlight of the albums are : Dystopian Overture, The Gift of Music, The Answer, A Life Left Behind, A New Beginning on CD 1. 2285 Entr'acte, Our New World, Astonishing on CD 2. The rest of the songs many acted as platform for the story telling, so it must be listen with context and in continuation. The Astonishing is Scene of Memory meet Operation Mindcrime meet Game of Throne meet Final Fantasy-RPG-things and at some point meet some other power metal concept albums such as Avantasia. As far as I listen, this is the best Dream Theater album since their good old days, their music ambition fully transferred into this double album in astonishing awesome way.

Metal Harem class: 9.5 out of 10 stars

Dream Theater - The Astonishing (2016)

Buy it Here - Amazon

Disc 1 - Act I
1. Descent of the NOMACS 01:10 instrumental
2. Dystopian Overture 04:50 instrumental
3. The Gift of Music 04:08
4. The Answer 01:52
5. A Better Life 04:39
6. Lord Nafaryus 03:28
7. A Savior in the Square 04:13
8. When Your Time Has Come 04:19
9. Act of Faythe 05:00
10. Three Days 03:44
11. The Hovering Sojourn 00:27 instrumental 
12. Brother, Can You Hear Me? 05:11
13. A Life Left Behind 05:49
14. Ravenskill 06:01
15. Chosen 04:31
16. A Tempting Offer 04:19
17. Digital Discord 00:47 instrumental 
18. The X Aspect 04:13
19. A New Beginning 07:41
20. The Road to Revolution 03:35

 Disc 2 - Act II
1. 2285 Entr'acte 02:20
2. Moment of Betrayal 06:11
3. Heaven's Cove 04:19
4. Begin Again 03:54
5. The Path That Divides 05:09
6. Machine Chatter 01:03 instrumental 
7. The Walking Shadow 02:58
8. My Last Farewell 03:44
9. Losing Faythe 04:13
10. Whispers on the Wind 01:37
11. Hymn of a Thousand Voices 03:38
12. Our New World 04:12
13. Power Down 01:25 instrumental 
14. Astonishing 05:51

Dream Theater:
John Petrucci - guitars
John Myung - bass
Jordan Rudess - keyboards
James LaBrie - vocals
Mika Mangini - drums

Guests
    Eric Rigler - bagpipes on "The X Aspect"
    City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra

Production
    Richard Chycki – engineering and mixing
    Jie Ma - cover art
    David Campbell - orchestral and choir arrangements

Trans-Siberian Orchestra - Letters From the Labyrinth (2015)

Letter From the Labyrinth is Trans-Siberian Orchestra sixth, and as today, their newest studio album. The band, or ensemble to be precised, was most famous for their series of Christmas theme albums. Up to before this album, I think everyone will said that TSO is the musical project specialized on those Christmas and holiday songs. So with the arrival of Letter From the Labyrinth showed that they have new vision. This is their first non-Christmas theme materials. Many sources cited that the theme is "a collection of songs on various subjects including bullying, banking, and the Berlin Wall." This is their first secular attempt to gained foot in wider progressive metal world. Considering how spectacular most of their works (and those are Christmas songs), prog fans should be enthusiast to have this album.

As usual, TSO adopted a lot of popular Classical music pieces into their repertoire in this album. The first opening song "Time and Distance" is an adaptation of Mozart's Requiem, as expected in progressive metal arrangement. Then from here, we go from Beethoven's piano piece in "Prometheus" to Mussorgsky's Night on a Bald Mountain in "Mountain Labyrinth". The first sign of modern progressive rock can be heard in the 7th song, "The Night Conceives", which is sung by Kayla Reeves. "Forget About the Blame" is Johnny Greene remake, in a semi-ballad song. The biggest name in singer line up is Russel Allen, who sing in "Not Dead Yet". Then there are remake of Savatage song, "Stay", then goes all the way to piano ballad in "Not the Same" , once again sing by singer Kayla Reeves. All these vocal songs in this section resembling the old '80s progressive metal/rock as familiar to Savatage and maybe all the way to Queensryche fans.  The section then closed with another instrumental arrangement of Classical masterpiece, this time taken from Johann Sebastian Bach's composition for keyboard. Two bonuses are put in the end, one is another version of Johnny Greene remake sung by Lzzy Hale, "Forget About the Blame".

Letters From the Labyrinth is not really as spectacular as other Trans-Siberian Orchestra projects, but there are still tons of creative ideas in the album. This included a welcome progressive metal arrangements of popular Classical music piece as mentioned above. Apart from many portion where a highly technical skill in music required to performed it, this album in fact is quite an easy listening album for progressive category. Also, most of the songs are written in the style to able to fit into holiday setting also. Letters From the Labyrinth will able to continued TSO legacy in this very specific genre in progressive world. TSO has an active live show , so expected these new material to be performed live during this 2015 Christmas time.

Metal Harem class: ********* eight stars out of ten

Buy it Here - Amazon

Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Letters From the Labyrinth (2015)

01. “Time and Distance”
02. “Madness of Men” - instrumental
03. “Prometheus” - solo vocals: Jeff Scot Soto
04. “Mountain Labyrinth” - instrumental
05. “King Rurik” - instrumental
06. “Prince Igor” - instrumental
07. “The Night Conceives” - Kayla Reeves
08. “Forget About the Blame” - Robin Borneman
09. “Not Dead Yet” - Russel Allen
10. “Past Tomorrow” - Jennifer Cella
11. “Stay”- Adrienne Warren
12. “Not the Same” - Kayla Reeves
13. “Who I Am”
14. “Lullaby Night” - instrumental
15. “Forget About the Blame” (bonus track featuring Lzzy Hale)
16. "A Mad Russian's Christmas (Live)" (Amazon Bonus Track)


    Paul O'Neill - Producer
    Dave Wittman - Co-Producer, Recording & Mix Engineer
    BJ Ramone - Assistant Engineer
    Jon Tucker - Additional Assistant Engineer
    A&R - Jason Flom, Ryan Silva

    Paul O'Neill - Guitars
    Jon Oliva - Keyboards, Guitars, Bass
    Al Pitrelli - Lead/Rhythm Guitars
    Luci Butler - Keyboards
    Chris Caffery - Guitars
    Roddy Chong - Violin
    Angus Clark - Guitars
    Joel Hoekstra - Guitars
    Mee Eun Kim - Keyboards
    Vitalij Kuprij - Keyboards
    Jane Mangini - Keyboards
    Asha Mevlana - Violin
    Johnny Lee Middleton - Bass
    John O. Reilly - Drums
    Jeff Plate - Drums
    Derek Wieland - Keyboards
    David Zablidowsky - Bass
    Dave Wittman - Additional Guitar, Bass, Drums

Background vocals:
"Forget About the Blame" - Lucille Jacobs, Minnie W. Leonard, Keith Jacobs

"Who I Am" - Danielle Sample, Erika Jerry, Chloe Lowery, Dari Mahnic, Bart Shatto, Andrew Ross, John Brink, Natalya Piette, Jodi Katz, James Lewis, Georgia Napolitano, Tim Hockenberry

"Time and Distance (The Dash)" - Danielle Sample, Chloe Lowery, Ava Davis, Kayla Reeves, Adrienne Warren, Andrew Ross, Chris Pinnella, Rob Evan, Parker Sipes, Phillip Brandon, Dustin Brayley, April Berry, Autumn Guzzardi

Strings :    Roddy Chong,     Asha Mevlana.    Lowell Adams.    Nancy Chang
    Lei Liu

Horns:   Jon Tucker (leader),   Kenneth Brantley,   Jay Coble,   Ashby Wilkins

Symphony X - Underworld (2015)

Finally the 9th studio album of Symphony X is here. Will this be their masterpiece ninth symphony? Songs like Nevermore and Without You that prior released give much hope to fans that it will be. The two songs package into the album called "Underworld", heavily influence by Dante's Inferno. This album follow very much the same works done by Symphony X from their two previous albums, Paradise Lost and Iconoblast. Although the gap between Iconoblast and Underworld is four years away, meaning there must be a lot of fresh idea to put in.

After the majestic "Overture", the first opener is "Nevermore". This song kicks in quickly with its leading riff, rightly jump into the progressive metal that Symphony X very much owned. It is heavy, fast and dark. Russel Allen's voice is kind of harsh to give some death metal touch. Gradually they move back to more melodic song such as "Underworld" and most notably in "Without You". Where the later is done much in old time power to melodic metal approach. The next two songs come almost similar, "Kiss of Fire" and "Charon", Symphony X enjoy their style in these two, which is characterized with strong guitar riffs then followed with progressive improvisation by the band. Another interesting point is definitely in "To Hell And Back". This one is nine minutes long, start with epic power metal feel, all the way to the most complicated song writing of the album.

Underworld is pretty much predictable for die hard fans, but it is also will not disappointing anybody because it is good and well written. The album consistent with Symphony X musical progress, no nasty surprise about the band experimenting something, well a bit but not much. With most of the members doing their own stuffs during their four years gap, this album is a good show that everybody still coming back to their own band's style. This album can easily presented to new fans who eager to seek out what progressive metal and Symphony X in particular.

Favorite tracks: Without You, To Hell And Back
Metal Harem class: ********* eight stars out of ten

Buy it Here - Amazon

Symphony X - Underworld (2015)

01. Overture
02. Nevermore
03. Underworld
04. Without You
05. Kiss of Fire
06. Charon
07. To Hell And Back
08. In My Darkest Hour
09. Run With The Devil
10. Swan Song
11. Legend

    Jason Rullo – drums
    Michael Lepond − bass guitar, backing vocals
    Michael Pinnella − keyboards, backing vocals
    Michael Romeo − guitar, backing vocals
    Russell Allen − lead vocals

Michael Pinnella - Ascension (2014)

How often you want listen prog metal just to hear for its keyboard parts? Yes, the one that has the coolest sound and shred fast as hell. Now, with this album by Michael Pinnela "Ascension", you got to listen to that one for the whole album.  Ascension is that mind blowing instrumental prog album, 100% build up from keyboard point of view. There are only one side of story here, the keyboard shred parts. There are ten tracks and for 52 minutes it is keyboards all the way. The line up notes state only Mike himself doing all of this. Even no guitarist was listed.

So, the whole album is pretty intense, pretty insane. This is the encyclopedia of progressive metal riffs and groves compiled into one album. From track one "New City Rising" up to "From Empty Places", they are all in same vibes, of fast and furious, complexes rhythm, shredding keys. "La Batalla En La Niebla" is kind of slowing down and has more melodic parts. Nice thing here is Michael Pinnella put a lot of grand piano sounds in here, to be pair with the synthesizer sounds. The one with dramatic orchestration can be heard in "Welcome Home". As well the classical wanna be tracks in "The Great Escape" and "The Ascension".

Nonetheless, the rest of album of course represented many of Symphony X elements. With almost all his member doing side projects, we can only hope they still got materials for their main band. Asension is truly keyboard-piano album that going to pleased prog fans for its mastery. My only lamentation is, there are no other artist join forces for this, one hell of guitarist will do. Last words, don't missed this.

Metal Harem class: ********** nine stars out of ten

Buy it Here - Amazon

Michael Pinnella - Ascension (2014)

1. New City Rising (4:21)
2. Flip Side Of Things (4:20)
3. From Empty Places (6:17)
4. La Batalla En La Niebla (5:59)
5. Miswired (4:27)
6. A Weight Of The World (5:22)
7. Spiders Web (4:34)
8. Welcome Home (4:30)
9. The Great Escape (5:30)
10. The Ascension (7:09)

Michael Pinnella (Symphony X) - piano, keyboards, bass & drum programming

Releases information

Label: Knife Fight Media
Format: Digital
December 15, 2014

Angra - Secret Garden (2015)

Angra, one of most influential power metal band from the Latin continent, is back on business with their eight full lengths album. When Angra on their heyday Angels Cry to Temple of the Shadow era, they are on top of the game with unique power metal. Their style was highly captivating, power-metal, neo-classical, power-ballad (think "Wuthering Height" song), Latin infused rhythm, and of course progressive elements with lots of guitar mastery duet between Kiko and Rafael. Different era has passed since, different Angra member jump in. As Kiko Loureiro remarks, musical changes is un-avoidable because they change as persons as well. Quite a words. Fabio Lione is now with Angra. One may feel excited, because un-officially, Angra (well, back then), is also regarded as the Latin representative of Rhapsody-of-Fire style of power metal. Most of their album (back then..) come with similar template, symphonic instrumental track ("Unfinished Allegro","In Excelsis"..) and many more symphonic-power references to the style they shared with Rhapsody of Fire. So, Fabio Lione is one of interesting moment we like to hear from Angra.

Good news is, in this new album called "Secret Garden", we kind of meet some of core Angra stuffs for sure. "Newborn Me" is the first track, after a brief prelude we get a strong strong with catchy guitar riffs, interesting bass-effect and keyboards, and also the Latin beat is there once again. The middle interlude is strong and very progressive. If you are looking for quality song writing in one power metal song, this is it. "Black Hearted Soul" is also strong one, the intro is a power chorus and then continued to catchy double beat power metal song. This time Fabio really added Angra elements to his own port-folio, where Rhapsody of Fire and Vision Divine meet them. "Final Light" is heavier stuffs, Latin infused beat and progressive elements played the big role here. "Storm Of Emotions" is traditionally Angra's story telling slow song, another interesting moment in the album, you'll easily find "old-times" Angra vibes on this one. Then when everything seems like to repeated themself, comes Simone Simons to save the situation. She is on featuring voices in "Secret Garden", one song that surely written with female vocals on mind since this is not typical Angra stuffs. Then also comes Doro Pesch for one more duet song "Crushing Room". Instead of slow ballad as in Simone songs, this is heavier one to fit Doro's characteristic.

Overall Secret Garden really brings back Angra. This is a solid album with careful song writing that incorporated most of core Angra stuffs, and blended it with new progressive metal idea. Vice versaly, Angra also added Fabio Lione to their legacy, where previously two charismatic singers already on board, Andre Matos and Edu Falaschi. Secret Garden is Angra album with level up song writing. Excellent new drummer Bruno Valverde continuted the Latin beat inducted to his drumming. Kiko and Rafael has enough guitars parts to keep their guitar fans happy. In the end, great power metal album to close 2014 in glory.


Favorite songs: Newborn Me, Black Hearted Soul
Metal Harem class: *********** nine stars out of ten

Buy it Here - Amazon

Angra - Secret Garden (2015) 

1. Newborn Me
2. Black Hearted Soul
3. Final Light
4. Storm Of Emotions
5. Violet Sky
6. Secret Garden - feat. Simone Simons
7. Upper Levels
8. Crushing Room - feat. Doro Pesch
9. Perfect Symmetry
10. Silent Call

Angra:
    Fabio Lione - vocals
    Rafael Bittencourt - guitar, vocals, artwork co-conception
    Kiko Loureiro - guitar
    Felipe Andreoli - Bass
    Bruno Valverde - Drums

Technical staff:
    Jens Bogren - producer, recorder
    Roy Z - pre-producer
    Rodrigo Bastos Didier - artwork conception and creation

Divine Ascension - Liberator (2014)

The Melbourne power metal sextet has back with vengeance. Divine Ascension is setting the people of southern hemisphere on full throttle with their second album, Liberator. As you remember, they are one of promising power / symphonic act when their debut album released in 2011. As close as to their first one, Liberator is one step upgrade for sure. This is much more serious works, stronger instrumentation and heavier singing. Jennifer Borg as vocalist is once again nailed it with her altoish voices, rather muscular one must say.

"Dawn Brings No Mercy" is ambitious symphonic intro put as an opener of the album. You will need to drill up some early Epica or Within Temptation music to draw comparison with the style Divine Ascension bringing up. On six minutes, Dawn Brings No Mercy even has enough room to put in a rather contrasting slow middle interlude, which also a sign that the band is now in full concentration to bring more progressive elements to their songs. "Stronger" is sample of their heavy symphonic track. With lively keyboardist and dual guitars, the band has a serious shredding solos to fight for. "Liberator" is the album title song that has multiple patterns to make up a good progressive metal cut, on full double pedal speed. Then also comes "My Contender Lies" which bring even further dark color and vengeance guitar riffs backed with slower tempo drumming. "Sorrow's Sacrifice" is open with clean acoustic guitar, the dynamic on this song quickly remind us to Dream Theater's Awake era sound. For some serious kick ass ballad you will need to fast forward to "Red Sky". The focus on this song is once again Jennifer Borg's vocal capabilities, which is victoriously produced here. For the rest of the album the band wrapped more headbanging power metal cuts, from melodious "Machine", "The Final Stand" to the  goose bumping acoustic "Memoria's Longing".

The album formula is their successful blending of power, symphonic and progressive in style. Then added strong character voice from Jennifer, backed with excellent musicianship by the band.  Then voila, this is a surprise winter gift to power metal fans. Oh wait, it is summer actually on their atmosphere. As a female fronted band, one thing I glad is the band did not fall in the current trend to added nonsense death metal growling voices in their song. Liberator is much serious and ambitious works compared to their debut. In the cliche of connoisseur word, their debut (As The Truth Appears) is the opening red Shiraz but Liberator is the unexpected powerful blend of Chardonnay - Semillon - Riesling (!??) from the Southern valley. Do not let this one slip without a heavy sip.

Favorite tracks: Dawn Brings No Mercy, Machine, The Final Stand, Memoria's Longing
Metal Harem class: ********** nine stars out of ten

Buy it Here - Amazon

Divine Ascension - Liberator (2014)

01. Dawn Brings No Mercy 06:31
02. Stronger 05:31
03. Liberator 06:07
04. My Contender Lies 05:48
05. Sorrow's Sacrifice 05:54
06. Crystal Tears 05:30
07. Machine 06:28
08. Red Sky 05:18
09. The Final Stand 05:46
10. Hideaway 05:52
11. Memoria's Longing 05:32

Jennifer Borg - Vocals
Karl"Inski" Szulik - Guitars
Robb Inglis - Guitars
Luke Wenczel - Drums
David Van Pelt - Keys
Jason Meracis - Bass

See also , Divine Ascension As The Truth Appears 2011 review

The Francesco Artusato Project - Our Dying Sun (2014)

The Francesco Artusato Project is exactly your dearest Devil You Know, All Shall Perish guitarist solo memento. Our Dying Sun is his second full length album. It is very much similar to his previous works, combined only guitar instrumental in progressive metal genre. In this eleven tracks of shred guitar, Francesco made it the sounds of destruction, futuristic, industrial and apocalypse theme. You got the idea, well just observe the cover art.

There are not much melodic line here. Songs are dominated by heavy dissonance, low string 'djent' like distortion. The representative track is "Our Dying Sun" for description above.  The other landmark point is "Infinite Waves", where the author spare some movement for drum, keyboards and bass to shine. Or maybe listen to "Sleeples Night" where the we got more down to earth leading riffs and melodies. Compared to its predecessor album, Chaos and the Primordial, Our Dying Sun sounds more homogeneous, from song writing to guitar tones.  If you like the idea of exploring one hour end-of-the-world theme shred guitar album, this one is for you.

Metal Harem class: ******** seven stars out of ten

Buy it Here - Amazon

The Francesco Artusato Project - Our Dying Sun (2014)

01. 210
02. Gates of Reason
03. Our Dying Sun
04. Divergence
05. Infinite Waves
06. Burning Leaves
07. Sleepless Night
08. Miura
09. Blood From a Stone
10. Omega
11. Spirito

Line Up:
Francesco Artusato (Devil You Know, All Shall Perish)

Guests Guitarists:
Per Nilsson (Scar Symmetry)
Wes Hauch (ex-The Faceless)
Ryan Knight (The Black Dahlia Murder)

Flying Colors - Second Nature (2014)

In Second Nature, Flying Colors entering their 'casual dating' phase. Just as Mike Portnoy metaphored "... the first album (Flying Colors) was very much a blind date,.. now we know each other and have much more chemistry..." . Now be aware of what they called 'chemistry'. Second Nature is completely different game. The casual dating produced more hardcore prog materials by the quintet. They are still remained the same, Mike Portnoy, Morse and Morse, together with LaRue and Casey McPherson. This is the album for those who loves each of them, from DT fans to Dixie Dregs to Ayreon-like in Neal Morse's style.

"Open Up Your Eyes" is worth a note to see how progressive material may came out from their collaborations since it is in staggering 12 minutes long. This one very much Neal Morse in style. A thick keyboard leads, follows by Portnoy power drumming. Of course Steve did not stay there for nothing, he is not letting Neal get all the fun. Every notes still sounds very Steve Morse, but it is good to see him 'forced' to played in different water. Dave LaRue himself, found nothing 'new' on this as he already done it millions times, perfect groove perfect fill in every moments. The ending of this song sounds like a homage to the Dream Theater traces, perhaps Portnoy's idea.

"Mask Machine" on other is a lighter song. Casey is now backed with the McCrary Sisters to produced this ambitious song where they try to reproduced old '80s cartoon like sounds. The same distortions sounds repeated on "Bombs Away", and again away from their two previous songs. "Bomb Away" is closer and closer to rock song, with vocal came as leading voices. Duo Morse in panning distortion is also a feature here. Now, "The Fury of My Love" is closer to Dream Theater works. There is James LaBrie-things in the vocals and Jordan-things in the keyboards. Just another weird 'chemistry' from them.

"A Place in Your World" , not trying to make it up, but this sounds Steve Morse. The intro at least reminds us to Steve Morse solo portfolio. "Lost Without You" is a lovely tunes, my favorite simple song from this album. You got original drum leading song, nice song writing on this one. "One Love Forever" , a sliding guitar song in folk dancing rhythm, interesting if you got these guys doing it. And at least one dark theme song in "Peaceful Harbor", this is kind of emotional ballad we have. And at least one epic for the ending. It's like the end of jamming session, "Cosmic Symphony" is a must material where Neal, Steve, Mike, Dave unleashed their musical passion, with an interruption of Casey ever haunting vocals.

Second Nature is their casual jamming materials we might expected. It's different from their debut, where song are more vocal in nature. Second Nature come as prog in front. Good news on that, a bit of down notes is we think this albums sounds too Neal-Mike projects. Hard to evade since the duo already in several projects, in Neal Morse band and Transtlantic. As ending note, we urge Portnoy to produced his other pet project too, The Winery Dogs.

Favorite songs: all, "Lost Without You", "Open Up Your Eyes", "Mask Machine"
Metal Harem class: ********** nine stars out of ten

Flying Colors - Second Nature (2014)
BUY IT HERE AMAZON

1. "Open Up Your Eyes" 12:24
2. "Mask Machine" 6:06
3. "Bombs Away" 5:03
4. "The Fury of My Love" 5:10
5. "A Place in Your World" 6:25
6. "Lost Without You" 4:46
7. "One Love Forever" 7:17
8. "Peaceful Harbor" 7:01
9. "Cosmic Symphony
 I. "Still Life of the World" — 3:15
 II. "Searching for the Air" — 2:58
 III. "Pound for Pound" — 5:33" 11:4

 Steve Morse – lead and rhythm guitar
 Casey McPherson – lead vocals
 Neal Morse – keyboards, vocals
 Dave LaRue – bass guitar
 Mike Portnoy – drums, percussion, vocals

 Additional Personnel
 The McCrary Sisters – background vocals on "Peaceful Harbor" and "Cosmic Symphony"
 Chris Carmichael – strings on "The Fury of My Love" and "Peaceful Harbor"
 Shane Borth – strings on "Bombs Away"
 Eric Darken – hand drums on "One Love Forever"

Mike LePond's Silent Assassins - Mike LePond's Silent Assassins (2014)

It's been a while for the whole member of Symphony X come together and release new music. In the meantime, most of them are busily doing side projects. Mike LePond, is one of their busiest one. Mike then decided to pull out his very own solo album, bravely his small gang as "Mike LePond's Silent Assassins", self titled and released September 2014. He also bring along Michael Romeo for six seven string-ing the album, and also ,eyebrow-risingly, as drum programmer. What's wrong with hiring real drummer you ask, and how awesome to programmed the whole progressive metal album drum track you wondered.

This album shared the same style with Symphony X, the progressive part are lessened, substitute with more heavy to thrash metal. The opener "Apocalypse Rider" tells us that we should expected straight forward heavy driven guitars riffs rather than seeing some mind twisted chord progression ala Symphony X. I agree that we see a lot of American heavy metal on this song, something like Anvil crossover with Symphony X. Alan Tecchio vocals is close to Russel Allen, un-alarmed listener may thing that is Russel in charge. Take no mistake, Alan doing his job in great shape. After this heavy opener, "Red Death" begin to show whom is this album belong to. Mike LePond starts the song with his bass show off, many more through out the album. With a basic single pedal drum pattern, Red Death still played in the style of very-Anvil feel. More closer to the European power metal is "The Quest", minor feel and addition of violin/viola/cello parts, lengthy bass solo, brings us to the folk - power - prog territory. "The Outsider" is another song that highlighted lots of bass parts. "Masada" is majority played in acoustic setup, epic ballad in the style of Manowar combined with good old David Coverdale days. A couple of heavy driven songs in between and let's jump to the last track, "Oath and Honor" is the epic ending track. Longest track in the reflections of Helloween and typical European symphonic metal orchestration.

This is a bass-fronted album with quite wide choices of styles inside. It will well enjoyed by many fans ranging from prog-head, power metaller, and general heavy fans. And guitar shred lover also, for the sake of Michael Romeo and Mike Metal parts. The kind of bringing bass sounds to the front is what gives this album even more credit. Song writing in another factor to make this album heavy yet easy to listen. This is an excellent heavy / progressive metal album came in parallel to its creator fame, bassist of Symphony X Mike LePond.

Favorite tracks: Red Death, Masada, Oath and Honor
Metal Harem class: ******** eight stars out of ten

Buy it Here - Amazon
Mike LePond's Silent Assassins - Mike LePond's Silent Assassins (2014)
Tracklist:

01. Apocalypse Rider
02. Red Death
03. The Quest
04. The Outsider
05. Masada
06. Silent Assassins
07. Ragnarok
08. The Progeny
09. Oath and Honor

Line-up:

Mike LePond - Bass (Symphony X)
Guests:
Metal Mike - Guitars (Halford, Testament)
Michael Romeo - Guitars and Drum programming (Symphony X)
Alan Tecchio - Vocals (Hades, Watchtower)
https://www.facebook.com/mikelepondssilentassassins/ 

Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun 2014

A recent New Mexico's Mastodon fossils discovery this week is surely not a media prank for the real Mastodon's album, Once More 'Round the Sun. The Atlanta sludge metal crossover band released their fifth album in precise timing. This is three years after their previous The Hunter. What we got here is even sludgier concept, which the band decided to focus all songs in clean yet darker voices.

On the starter set, enjoy the big grooves found "The Motherload", which only one side of the album's dimension. Their most enjoyable strength is their successful approach in bending sludge metal with progressive as platform for songs "Tread Lightly"and "High Road" , both also having a great guitar riffs intro that easily familiar. On the rather psychedelic antique points, we still got "Feast Your Eyes"  which is heavy in dissonances. In "Aunt Lisa", a song featuring ladies punk band The Coathangers, the band played experiment which resulting in much more un-orthodox crossover of sludge, punk and cheer-leading yel-yel. "Asleep in the Deep" is a flat singing and staccato beat track, another Mastodon escapade need to bring affront.

Once More 'Round the Sun will accepted by die hard fans for its continuity of sturdy sludge metal feel, yet attractive for their outer rings listener for its crossover fanciness. Overally enjoyable album with lots of details and uniqueness to be found by repeated spinning. Favorite songs are: "Asleep in the Deep", "The Motherload" and "Ember City".

Metal Harem class: ********* eight stars out of ten

Buy it Here - Amazon

Mastodon - Once More 'Round the Sun 2014

1. "Tread Lightly"   5:14
2. "The Motherload"   4:59
3. "High Road"   4:15
4. "Once More 'Round the Sun"   2:58
5. "Chimes at Midnight"   5:32
6. "Asleep in the Deep"   6:12
7. "Feast Your Eyes"   3:23
8. "Aunt Lisa" (feat. The Coathangers) 4:08
9. "Ember City"   4:59
10. "Halloween"   4:39
11. "Diamond in the Witch House" (feat. Scott Kelly) 7:49

 Troy Sanders – bass guitar, vocals
 Brent Hinds – guitars, vocals
 Brann Dailor – drums, vocals
 Bill Kelliher – guitars, vocals

Christian Muenzner - Beyond The Wall Of Sleep (2014)

Christian Muenzner's shredding style look like the one that really fit my ear. He got metal enough riffs, quite spectacular metal actually. He is technically killer, so when the need to listen a full speed licks, there is also exist. His choice of scale also interesting, not an usual one at least. Then there is awesome composition to combine all of them. The general feel of this 2nd solo album still fit really well on his first one. "Beyond The Wall Of Sleep" has all aspect mentioned above. His style is not as djent , as complicated as Jeff Loomis or Stephen Forte. Yet, also not as "easy listening" as ,ehem, John Petrucci casually doing. Balance is the word.

This is yet another album where I enjoy all the track. So not easy to highlight ones. Two of the openers is featured with another guitarist. "Shadow Over Innsmouth" is straightforward fast speed shred, featured with Danny Tunker, guitarist of Aborted. "Mountain Of Madness" is the more brutal version of the first song. Both running at almost exact time of five minutes. In this second song, Terry Syrek is the featured guitarist, enjoy his almost 'waterfall' like notes on this track. The main title song "Beyond The Wall Of Sleep" changed the course with mystical scales. We got to enjoy the shred partner, keyboardist Jimmy Pitts in action. For drummer Hannes Grossman, his song is "The Witch Of Endor", very strong neo classic supported with precised drumming. "Nightlife" is having a nice groove in there. How about killer riffs in the intro of "Demon's Gate". The last song is for those worship technical typing licks, it is all on "Veil Of The Soul".

Christian Muenzner wonderful guitar mastery reflected well on this album. The quality is straight tight with the first album. The support of his bandmates is also one factor in making this album superior. He should stand on the same boat with other popular shredders, yet I still amaze at how little exposure he got from the internet. Amazing progressive metal guitar instrumental album.

Favorite track: The Witch Of Endor, Demon's Gate, Veil Of The Soul

Metal Harem class: ********** nine stars out of ten

Buy it Here - Amazon

Christian Muenzner - Beyond The Wall Of Sleep (2014)

1. Shadow Over Innsmouth
2. Mountain Of Madness
3. Beyond The Wall Of Sleep
4. The Pit And The Pendulum
5. Evil Spell (The Book Of Belial)
6. The Witch Of Endor
7. The Talisman
8. Nightlife
9. The Green Traveller
10. Demon's Gate
11. Veil Of The Soul


Jimmy Pitts (The Fractured Dimension, Spastic Ink, Pitts/Minnemann)-keyboards
Linus Klausenitzer (Obscura, Noneuclid)- bass
Hannes Grossmann (Obscura, Blotted Science)-drums
mixed and mastered by Per Nilsson (Scar Symmetry)
guitar guest soloists Danny Tunker (Aborted, track 1) and Terry Syrek (track 2)

Kenziner - The Last Horizon (2014)

I do owned Kenziner albums from their past. I considered their 2nd album "The Prophecy" as valuable classic neo-power metal of that time. In the early '00, internet weren't really taken the hype, so when Kenziner went into inactivity they were just like lost from the radar. It is only 15 years later they are back with a new album. Kenziner was actually lead by Jarno Keskinen's. A virtuoso guitarist who also performed in a project Virtuocity. By the time goes, all original member of Kenziner were replaced by new forces. The singer choice fell to Markky Kuikka, ex Thaurorod, ex Book of Reflections. His voices is completely different to ex singer Stephen Fredrick though. With this new line up, "The Last Horizon" pull off as serious neo-progressive-power metal release.

With more than 10 years of time, this album just like the compilation of Jarno Keskinen's ideas. Every track has been impressively composed. The main platform is Jarno's virtuoso guitar playing. Then there is strong connections between keyboards to provide the neo classic keys licks. Songs are more progressive than their 15 years ago works, which is more neo-classic and power metal. The first track "Run For Your Life" may not much revealed what potential in this album, as this opener just a simple standard power metal tunes with strong guitar riffs. From 2nd song onward it starts to kick really hard in the ass. "Our Times" is catchy melodic neo-classic song, with very progressive lyric line. The structure and music complexity is escalated, riffs ideas are flying around yet the song itself did not suffered and remained easy to follow. Then listen to "Devour The World" which is amazing composition showcase resulted in rich and dynamic song. "End Of An Era" is also an insane guitar improvisation through out the song. "Keep The Flame Alive" is finally another standard anthem power metal feel. So far we can describe this album as Symphony X,  Yngwie Malmsteen and Helloween all mixed at once. Check also track "No Turning Back" in which at their last moment all instrument seems playing tightly together in unison. As said before, all songs are crazy, let's make the last recommendation which is fall on the titled track "The Last Horizon". The longest track on the album, mean an epic eight minutes of blasting progs.

Not much can be said, "The Last Horizon" is killer comeback album of Kenziner. Replay factor are high on this album for its creative song writing. Those enjoy real guitar works in a prog/power setting should quickly grab this album. The fact that the person behind this works was absence from metal for years proved that when you have enough talents, it will not vanished by time. Stunning works.

Favorite tracks: all of them... especially Our Times, Devour The World

Metal Harem class: ********** nine stars out of ten

Buy it Here - Amazon

Kenziner - The Last Horizon (2014)

1. Run For Your Life
2. Our Times
3. Heroes Ride
4. Devour The World
5. End Of An Era
6. Keep The Flame Alive
7. I Am Eternal
8. No Turning Back
9. The Last Horizon
10. Perfect Moment (CD Bonus Track) 192

Line Up:
Markku Kuikka - Vocals (Book of Reflections, Status Minor, ex-Gronholm, ex-Thaurorod, ex-TorneD)
Jarno Keskinen - Guitars (Virtuocity, ex-Let Me Dream)
JJ Hjelt - Bass (Royal Truck, ex-Battagia)
Jukka Karinen - Keyboards (Status Minor, The Magnificent, Thunderstone)
Make Lievonen - Drums (Embassy of Silence)

Brian Larkin - Far Enough Into the Void (2014)

This is a debut album from guitarist / singer Brian Larkin. Short introduction to Brian, he was singer (also contributed as guest guitar soloist) for Dark Empire and now focus on soloing career. He stayed and teach guitar in NYC area. Far Enough Into the Void is instrumental guitar album, only three tracks featuring vocals. The album fall into progressive metal, hard rock all the way to fusion and jazz.

The opening song Disembodied Profanity is vocalized track, progressive metal with thick dissonance on the singing. The singing is so unusual that maybe the result of converting guitar licks to vocals, listen the last few second from the last where the main theme performed by guitar. You may want to leave that alone and move on the what Brian offered the best, the instrumentals. Favorite tracks are Delete You, a funk infused track combined with shredding in style of Ron "Bumblefoot" Thal and John Petrucci. Self-Deprecation Boogei, a track demonstrated Brian Larkin's blues scale comprehensive mix into intrigue progressive metal vocabularies. And Fail Again is dark lower string riffs, this time bring listener to modern metal zone. Then we have Habit Magnet, a total funk attack that just like a magnet attached to your ears. Something Inflammable is a track featuring Christophe Godin, a French jazz-metal virtuoso. This track has a high dose of jazz feel in its foundation.

Brian Larkin performance is superb. He brings a lot of Ron 'Bumblefoot' Thal influence, which is natural because Brian was once study under Ron. Ron Thal himself featured in a song Darkest Place. The other guest solo is prog/fusion shredder Chris Brooks. Far Enough Into the Void is a rich prog fusion instrumental album. The distinguished progressive trade mark Brian has, combined with elements of funk-fusion-jazz, made this album easily stand out for its kind. A debut album with maximum pleasures.

Metal Harem class: ******** eight stars out of ten

Brian Larkin - Far Enough Into the Void (2014)
Buy it Here - Amazon

1. Disembodied Profanity 5:27
2. Live It Down 6:34
3. Delete You 4:11
4. Dabble 1:27
5. Self-Deprecation Boogie 7:08
6. Less Blue 0:35
7. Words Fail 5:27
8. And Fail Again 7:13
9. Habit Magnet 5:42
10. Something Inflammable 4:14
11. The Situation in Room 205 6:08
12. Itch 3:03
13. Darkest Place 5:58
14. Swam

Brian Larkin, with guest guitarist Ron 'Bumblefoot' Thal, Chris Brooks, Christophe Godin