For one, it's about time these guys get the recognition; having spent the past few years in the melodic power metal underground, they have come a ways since cuts like "Daybreaker" blew the minds of metalheads and brought the less frivolous approach to their own version of the "thinking man's" metal.
Mixing the progressive prowess of Dream Theater, the energetic technicalities of Queensryche, and the melodic grandeur of TNT, taking the heaviest and darkest pastures and melding them into one sound creating a darker sound with their latest release, "Heathen Machine." Taking up where most prog and power metal bands might have left off going in either the symphonic or avant-garde/experimental direction,
Balance of Power delivers straight ahead in your face metal complete with hooks, psuedo-anthem choruses, and aggressive energy to pack the punch needed to satisfy the most discriminatory ears.
With the musicianship and production completely in-tact, there is the "balance" so to speak between the fine line of songwriting and playing, but tend to lean more towards a song band, although the headroom is left for guitar and keyboard solos, that extend to the envelope of a jam session, without punching holes in the melodic structure of the song, keeping the emphasis on the crunching guitar riffs as well as the keyboard orchestration and synthesized mechanical effects, adding more of technical aspect to the whole sound. Opening up with the dark intro
"The Rising," which directly leads into the heavy, but yet moody hook laden title cut, being a straight ahead power metal cut ala,
Stratovarius or Gamma Ray, cuts like
"Wake Up Call" follow the same endeavor.
"I wish you Were Here" and
"The Eyes of the World," follow with the classic Queensryche sound, which leads to the mention of the vocal styling of John K. which could be compared to an at times raspy version of
Tony Harnell crossed with Geoff Tate, he has the range and pipe to sing out a clean falsetto to a gasoline drenched baritone.
What would this be without the dark moody emotional cut
"No Place Like Home," complete with the harmonized chorus against a backdrop of thick riffs and synth pads, almost complete right, we have just about the whole spectrum of a near perfect metal album here, wait, of course we have to have the emotional power ballad (no cheesy connotations, of course)
"Just Before You Leave." Summing up the recording is
"Necessary Evil," ending the record on the same dark sound that it began with (in the end it might remind someone of Dio's Magica).
Nine cuts in all, completely bombastic all the way through, with smooth transitions between the cuts, offering the conceptual feel to glide freely throughout.
So have these guys reached the pinnacle, well we will see, but for now, this should tie us over until the next release.
Written by
Hashman Thursday, February 5, 2004
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