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.
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.
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