Band name: Cheesy. Cover art: Cheesy. However, these Norwegian progressive metalheads can fuckin' play. And more importantly, they can also write some fuckin' songs, man! Their basic approach is textbook progressive metal: Soaring vocals with tons of harmonies; lots of chunky staccato chords; technical prowess in the form of odd time signatures, blazing leads, and generally complex layers of instrumentation; synths that at times duel with the guitars; long songs with tons of changes and complicated arrangements; and so on. You know the drill, right? Sure. But, the thing is, these guys write amazing songs. I haven't really kept up with much progressive metal over the years because few of the bands really do much for me, I'd prefer to listen to the classics and leave it at that, but damn if there aren't some impressive tracks on this thing that really make me regret shrugging off the current state of the genre more often than not. Or, it's entirely possible that this is just a rare breed of progressive metal album that achieves an excellent sense of force throughout. They're great musicians, too. The vocalist is absolutely awesome, with a good range that stays true to traditional metal without particularly sounding forced or cheesy, and his choices of harmonies are often extremely efficient within the context of the songs. Meanwhile, the instrumentalists don't have a problem keeping things simple when it's good for the composition as a whole, so they're not showing off and getting flashy all over the place, they reserve most of that for the solo passages (or simply when the surrounding elements call for it) and basically take the progressive and complex road by piecing things together with a lot of detail - crafting the riffs into larger pieces, and then assembling those larger pieces into intentionally thought out songs that are both memorable and interesting - actually making use of their time quite well. And of course the solos are fuckin' crazy, totally inspired by all those virtuoso 80's antics - and you simply can't lose with that action! The 10+ minute "Glory of the Empire", the first of two "epics" (in terms of length), opens with acoustic guitars, flute, and scattered synth orchestrations that gradually build in with crispy guitar riffing and subtly erratic drumming before quickly dropping back to a pulsing bassline and almost lending a gothic rock sort of lean to the general tone of the composition as the vocals kick in. Things shift back and forth with variations on the core riffs and some of the accent keyboards and lightly palm-muted guitars definitely have a catchy sort of 80's hard rock thing going on, but I'm all for that shit, trust me, so that's not a weakness in any way! But the title track? 19 minutes. Yep. You read that right. 19 minutes. And as soon as it opens up with all the synthesized horns and stuff you know it's gonna be one of those dramatic epics, right? Oh yeah, bring on the cinematic hokiness that sounds like Queen on the "Flash Gordon" soundtrack, baby! But throw in some video game music, too! And then, suddenly, it happens: The metal saves the day! Thrashy picking patterns, raging drum fills, and sweet discordant riffing that might be at home in an Opeth track or something. Awesome. Vocals don't even enter until past the four-minute mark! And later there are indeed several drastic changes, with piano and softer vocals in the driver's seat midway through before things build back into the traditional progressive metal fury. The instrumental "Biosfear" obviously lets the keyboards play a much larger role and involve themselves in a ton of interplay with the guitars, ending up drawing on some 70's progressive rock influences more akin to Dream Theater-esque grooves (of course) or something Dan Swan? might have experimented with on the "Moontower" album . In the end it's among the few tracks that feels somewhat over the top, but it's not in bad taste, and with the writing talents these cats exhibit elsewhere I'm more than happy to allow them the right to strut their stuff for five minutes here and there - it's not like I can't hang with a scorching guitar solo or two... or three or four! "Alive" is my favorite track overall though, as it touches on some ultra polished passages with piano and softer singing against acoustic guitars, while the chorus is delivered almost like a metal pop song, and I fucking love that. I mean, if every song on this record hit on all of these strengths I would totally lose it. Very nicely done. Where's "the ballad", you ask? That would be "Silence From Angels Above", which I could of course do without, but it's the shortest track, so that's cool, let it go. "The Prophecy" kind of starts to test my limits by also taking a lighter path that involves some spoken vocals and keyboards that can get a little too far gone towards quirky 70's prog rock theatrics for me, but thankfully distortion comes in a little after two minutes and things start to shift over a bit and I can get through it. The recording's also damn good. I don't really have any complaints. I'd probably like to hear the guitars get a tad thicker or to have the bass come up just a touch, but the mix is insanely clean and clear, and the tones are fine by me. The distortion is nice and crisp for the rhythms while bright and fluid for the leads, the bass is thick yet has enough of an edge to be present at all times, the synths are extremely well handled and don't overpower the mix, the drums and vocals sound great... it's a totally professional affair, that's for sure. Honestly the only thing about this band that I'm not totally sold on is the band name and the packaging on this thing. This is their debut full-length, so I had no idea what to expect other than the fact that this label tends to focus on this particular style, but... I'd never have picked up this CD without hearing it first based on the cover art being way goofy. The entire layout basically consists of semi cheesy band photos and these manipulated images of a circus dude on a tall unicycle riding around in the desert looking at the remnants of burned circus tents. I've never been into the whole "theatrical" storytelling side of progressive metal or whatever, but this artwork does nothing for me. You'd almost expect it to be a concept record, but the lyrics don't seem to tie to one another except for the fact that there are mentions of journeys and drifters, so they could technically argue that all of the songs are seen through one character's eyes or whatever, but one minute they're singing about the struggles of battle and the next it's loneliness or love lost and stuff like that. Like many such acts, when they fall back on rhythms that flirt with groove (namely in "Why Am I Here?" and to a lesser degree "Imperial Destruction") it can become tiresome, but all such tracks still employ amazingly memorable choruses and great solos, so that certainly helps carry the load and get them by. At its best this disc is an easy 8/10, but as a whole I have to drop it back to a 7/10 since some of those ballad-y moments can cause a hitch in the listen, and 69 minutes of anything is a little hard to swallow in one sitting, so they may be guilty of a little overkill in that department. But this is an impressive debut for sure, and I'll be anticipating their future efforts, because there's no doubt that they have a lot to offer. And if this is their jumping off point? Hell, it's only gonna get better, right?
[Sensory]
Running time - 69:53, Tracks: 9
[Notable tracks: Sin, Alive, The 1st Chapter]
Sensory - http://www.lasercd.com
