695. James LaBrie / Impermanent Resonance. 2013. 3/5

Dream Theater lead vocalist James LaBrie continues his impressive musical output between his band's albums with his latest solo band effort, Impermanent Resonance which is another step forward in this vector of his career. Having built up his band over the course of his last couple of solo efforts, they come together here and really begin to make there own mark.

The album kicks off in a frenzy, which really hits you from the first moment of the first song. The heavy drum and guitar riff is offset by LaBrie's brilliant vocal alongside the screaming vocal of his drummer Peter Wildoer. "Agony" is a fantastic opening track, combining the best elements that this band has brought to the table in recent years. The energy and preciseness of the music sets the album off with a bang. This is followed by "Undertow" which continues in this frame. It is easy to see influences from bands such as Linkin Park and Sevendust, but they have really made their own sound from these influences. The opening tracks are aggressive yet placating, expressive yet stylistically within a rock framework. It is great to hear this album has set itself apart from the style that is prevalent in Dream Theater. Whereas their music can be technical to a fault, with time changes thrown in as much to be different than to serve the purposes of a song, this is much more of a straight forward heavy rock sound and beat, sticking to historical beats rather than trying to reinvent the timescale. Wildoer's screaming vocals really bring a new dimension to the music, and further from hindering LaBrie's natural brilliant vocals, they complement them wonderfully within these songs.
While I think the first half of this album is excellent, I do believe it drifts off in the second stanza, and heads towards a disappointing conclusion. Songs like "Back on the Ground" and "Holding On" I find tedious and boring, given their natural tendency to drift towards being a power ballad but try to stay just heavy enough to be catagorised that way. Even "Lost in the Fire" is that way inclined. "Say You're Still Mine" is very much a power ballad, and really does kill the latter part of the album for me. The closer "I Will Not Break" helps balance some of that off, there is just a little too much... softness... for me in the back half of this album.

Marco Sfogli on guitar is again superb. It's a tough ask to have someone ask you to play guitar in your "other" band, knowing that you are going to be compared to that "other' guitarist. His work here and on previous LaBrie albums does not pale in comparison to John Petrucci, though there appears to be less of his break out guitar solos as there has been on previous efforts. Wildoer's vocals are well supported by his terrific drumming on this album, and Ray Riendeau is great on bass. Co-collaborator and keyboardist Matt Guillory has again done marvellous work in both writing and playing on the songs here.

In the long run this is a mixed bag whichever way your music loyalties flow. I'd have loved to have heard more of the metal energy that cam in the first four or five songs of the album, whereas others may think they came at them too hard, and prefer what comes on the second side of the album. Perhaps in an effort to keep everyone happy, they may well have done neither to any great satisfaction. A good album, that perhaps could have been better.

680. MullMuzzler / Keep It to Yourself. 1999. 3/5

MullMuzzler is the side project of Dream Theater's lead vocalist James Labrie, and this album was the first, released a couple of months before that band's Scenes From a Memory.

The opening song "His Voice" is reminiscent of the best parts of his Dream Theater influences, a prominent guitar riff that punctuates a keyboard-dominated melodic song, which suits Labrie's vocals perfectly. The guitar and drums do not dominate here, which probably highlights that the writers on this album are not those that are seen in his full time band. This theme continues in "Statued", where again it is the keyboard that dominate the song, along with major keyboard solo again but not so much from the guitar. In a way it is probably a good thing that Labrie and Mullmuzzler have tried to change things up from what you would normally here from the Dream Theater conglomerate, but although I do enjoy both of these opening songs on the album, I really feel it misses a real guitar and drum influence, to help balance out what is here. Perhaps that would bring too much heaviness to the music that the band was looking to avoid. I'm not sure. "Shores of Avalon" continues in this same vein, with Labrie's soaring vocals tending to paper over the oversights in the music itself. The keyboards in the middle of the song are very much front and centre here though, leaving the guitar to be almost an afterthought in the distant background.
None of that can prepare you for "Beelzebubba", the jazzy, swing tempo song that is all about the horns, trumpet, sax and trombone, mixed in with more subtle keys in a song that is so diverse and different from anything that has been heard before with his vocals attached to it that it is a real shock on first listen. Sadly, it really doesn't improve on subsequent listens to the album. It really is like a sore thumb, even sticking out amongst the different tones that are gathered together on Keep It to Yourself. This is certainly one way to garner attention to your music, but I would question as to whether it is a good thing.
The album's best song follows this hiccup. "Guardian Angel" raises itself to a better tempo, and is a more concentrated guitar and drums based song, though even here it is amazing that it the bass guitar is the main guitar in question, until we get to the guitar solo, which is the first on the album where it truly does dominate. The bass and keys also get a chance to shine on their own. A much better return than its predecessor.
"Sacrifice" is very much of the power ballad variety, with James crooning through, and even having the soft rock power guitar solo as a reference point. James sounds great, but when you are not a fan of these kinds of songs it would take a hell of a lot more to save it. "Lace" is probably my second favourite on the album, with several characteristic time changes and switching between guitar riff and keyboard riff as the headline act of the song, and even James singing with James in places with some excellent harmonies. "Slow Burn" returns to the power ballad genre, starting out slow and mournful with keyboards and guitar underneath Labrie's soaring vocals. The closing song "As a Man Thinks" is another abstract piece of music writing, one that really probably just drags on way too long. It is almost like a freeform jam, without any structure and relying on keys and computers as the lead instrumentals. It makes me think of Max Headroom for some reason, not always a pleasant thought. A very strange way to finish off.

There is a lot to like here, along with some stuff that you would have to be a fanatic to love. While it may not be to everyone's tastes, it is good to hear Labrie and his band experimenting with lots of different styles through the genre of the album, and not being locked into an album where all the songs sound the same and act the same. Mullmuzzler give you a chance to appreciate their talents through many mediums, and whether you like it will be up to the individuals taste. For me, I don't find it is an album I would drift back to very often, but when I do, as I have today, I am still mostly pleasantly surprised at the outcome. If I listen to it without "Beelzebubba" and "What a Man Thinks" I enjoy it a lot more, and would certainly rank it higher without them.

272. James LaBrie / Elements Of Persuasion. 2005. 4/5

I picked this up after the heavier effort that Dream Theater dished up with "Train Of Thought" hoping it would translate to Labrie's own material. I must say it came as a surprise when it did!

This is an immediately enjoyable album. Though showing the obvious influences of his work with Dream Theater, "Elements Of Persuasion" is sufficiently diverse to ensure it is not comparable with that band's releases.
Labrie's vocals are as always at the forefront, while the musical direction is on the heavier side of his previous releases.

Favourites for me on the disc include Crucify, Alone, Freak and Invisible.

Rating: A surprisingly good release. One of the surprises of 2005. 4/5.

9. James Labrie's Mullmuzzler / 2. 2001. 4/5

There is always the need to compare an artist's solo album with the albums of the band he is a member of. Labrie, of Dream Theater, has always made an effort to try an distance himself from the exact same music of his alumni, though of course the roots run deep. Here, with his second effort under the moniker Mullmuzzler, it is impossible not to hear the inherant similarities with Dream Theater. Put this out of your mind, and you can enjoy the album for what it is – Labrie's effort to do his own thing on his own terms. And it works.

Rating : I was more impressed listening to this tonight than I was when I first got it. That must be a plus. 4/5