Tomorrow's Eve's third album is a huge piece of comprehensive and challenging Progressive Metal, sparkling with innovativeness and great musical craftsmanship.
The more I started listening to it, the more I had to listen to it, each spin opening a new window, enlightening a dark room bit by bit.
The strong, weighty and nuanced production does justice to a musically exploring effort, I'll focus on some general selections to give a glimpse of what to expect.
The ultra heavy guitar work on
Amnesia is a key highlight on the album, appearing even more striking when woven into a jazzy piano passage and diverse bass structuring that keeps the song on a powerful beat.
This album is technical in the vein of Threshold, aggressive a bit like
Symphony X and slightly odd as Pain Of Salvation can be.
With its 9-minute
The Eve Suite captures these elements and add an emotional aspect convincingly implemented by singer Martin LeMar receiving strong support from moody keys before the songs closes with a great hymn-like finale.
Not From This World features Vivien
Lalu on guest vocals creating a mellow signature and I also really dig the experimental mid-section, spiced with dreaming keyboard layers.
Credit must go to drummer Tom Diener for his work on tracks like
Irreversible, laying down a very creative basic rhythm section with forceful assistance from bassist Chris Doerr. This track lacks a more memorable melody but the main foundation is extremely compact.
The piano shift in
Rebirth followed by a harmonious refrain before slowly letting in the background keyboard is clearly another album highlight. Before reaching this point the song has longed for something to lift it up from a more anonymous path.
The Trials Of Man is a huge monster of a Progressive beast, pounding forth with crushing riffs, technical gems, melodic leads, thunderous drumming and just at the right moment a sedative passage sets in with a soft guitar solo in the centre, this ability to make contrasts is really a strong characteristic of Tomorrows Eve.
It's hard to single out favourite songs because so many are great in their own way and perhaps the reason for this album not scoring even higher can be found in this quite odd phenomenon. a bunch of ultra solid tracks making up a massive whole without any piece really standing out as totally magnificent.
Musically the whole thing is close-knit and very convincing, due to the decision to keep the story and main structures in focus it doesn't appear overblown at all.
Lyrically the concept is wide ranged, dealing with a person suffering from memory loss, his search for truth and the dramatic adversity connected with this mission while also finding love along the way.again it just makes sense.
There is enough material and clever thoughts to keep you busy for a long time, trying to bind the threads together. I advise fans of Progressive Metal to give it a try.
Written by
Tommy Monday, February 12, 2007
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