After heavy listening I'm beginning to think that one of the intentions behind the creation of this album is to leave the listener with a feeling of never really knowing what exactly to make of it...Guess that's a quality in its own right.
Lanfear's fifth album follows in the footsteps of their later works, all enjoyable pieces of crafty, at times odd but clever Progressive Power Metal. What's new is singer Nuno Miguel Fernandes replacing the very competent Tobias Althammer, but have no fear, the new guy fits in very well, delivering a varied and strong performance.
The rest of the band manages to create a technical, rough but also harmonious and atmospheric room for the vocals to unfold within.
Enter Dystopia cracks the door wide open, with trashy edges it cuts through with steadfast determination and a mix of cunning drumming and weird key passages. The last part of the song is completely spaced out but it's exactly this unpredictable wry element that makes the band so unique.
Throughout the album a gloomy, shadow-like, sci-fi atmosphere lurks behind the curtain, strange stuff seen isolated, but in connection with the sophisticated musical layers and critical, dark shrouded and mystical lyrics it makes sense.
Synaptogenesis is one heavy monster, raw guitar riffs, dark bass lines and hypnotic singing melts together in a very cool and effective way reaching a climax with the amazing break mid way through.
In the calmer department,
Just Another Broken Shell lights up with a soulful guitar solo and the album closure
Seeds Of The Plague has numerous technical guitar parts and a quite melodic chorus.
Not all knots are tided tightly enough though, when listening to the album some elements appear disconnected,
The Question Keeper has a powerful chorus but the parts in between appear too anonymous.
Brave New Men runs a bit too much in the same circle and
The Art Of Being Alone is set back by a not that thrilling chorus, but there is no serious damages to the system.
Production is professional, powerful if a bit too raw for my taste.
So does X To The Power Of
Ten break new ground and earn its right as one of the best progressive release this year? Hardly.
Is it a solid and strangely interesting piece of work? Definitely.
Written by
Tommy Saturday, October 25, 2008
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