“Harmony driven progressive rock and melodic heavy metal” is what’s promised from this US band of three brothers and one other. It sounds straightforward enough but it’s not.
Throughout the 60 odd minutes, I found the same pattern. I heard competent but rarely dynamic rhythms, some very nice guitar-led mellow sections and some dire vocals. The drums are too high in the mix and seem at times to be somewhere else, indeed the sound production overall isn’t up to much so there’s no power or impact. Is this some subtle Prog thing? I’d like to think so but if there’s one thing Prog should do, it should absorb us and get into our senses. While listening to “Requiem”, I found myself looking on and wondering what was happening. Changing patterns are fine, like changing seasons, but here it seems to have no purpose. “A Godless World” is our first exposure to this progressive pick n mix and there’s an urgency about the punchy rhythm but for all its aspirations to an epic delivery, it sounded to me like a poor man’s Iron Maiden. The following track “12-steps” is better and I’m glad the band let the music do the talking. It flows in a Power Metal style. It doesn’t need vocals. When we get them, I wished they weren’t there. I don’t know what the band thought they were achieving through these vocals. The guy is flat and can’t hold a note. “12-steps” returns to an Opeth style, mellow progressive passage – inspired by “Still Life”, perhaps? – and this is what they’re good at.
There is an instrumental “Directive Four” which cuts out the agony of the vocals but it’s not dynamic. The drums are out of kilter with the guitar tune. There’s a kind of retro feel from the 70s, and you sense it’s aiming towards something epic but if you want to be taken conclusively to the heights, I suggest listening to Pagan’s Mind instead. The rock riff is ok, but it’s not something to hang on to. The 10 minute “Hypocriticism / the becoming” is “ok” (that’s what I wrote on my notes) and suits the vocal style better as a slower and darker edge goes with the driving rock/metal beat. There’s another good mellow section and I sensed that the track was capable of building up into something strong. The drums are too high in the mix as ever but the track at least ends with an extended shadowy and atmospheric ambiance. Actually, this track was better than “ok” and although its constituent parts and sound qualities weren’t totally cohesive in my view, there was a better sense of integration and atmosphere here than anywhere else on the album.
The last three tracks, which operate under the title “Requiem” are a “conceptual trilogy”. I have no idea what the concept is. I quite liked the distorted rhythm of the first one, “The Oracle”. The rhythm guitar work and psychedelically heavy ending are quite good, but like everything else on this album, nothing seems to have any connection or relevance to everything else. Part II – “The Vision” has energy in the instrumentals but again doesn’t lead anywhere. The vocalist sounds like Ozzy at a poorly recorded 1970s Black Sabbath gig, which in fact was an improvement compared to some of the singing. The third part “The Only Resolution” did not have the climax I might have hoped for. An uninspiring but forward-driving riff with flat and out of tune vocals lead mercifully into one of those nice mellow and lush guitar sections. There is an attempt at gravitas and power, which I’d suggest are needed in progressive music but it all wastes away into nothing. The changes have no obvious direction. The riff’s ok but there’s no obvious context or anything to go with it which might vaguely excite us. If there’s something going on in there, I don’t know what it is.
Apart from the poor production qualities of this album, the main problem I had with it was that there was no heart to it. Ideas are just thrown in, moods change and nothing sticks, binds or makes any sort of cohesive sense. My view is that the band members need to look at what they want to do and stick to a policy, concentrate on quality production and then play to their strengths. As far as I was concerned “Requiem” had good, mediocre and poor moments but above all I didn’t feel involved. The band were playing to themselves.
http://www.myspace.com/stilllifehome
Andrew Doherty
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