Time Requiem is the project of virtuoso keyboardist Richard Andersson.
This is Neoclassical Progressive metal for those of you who prefer a class description.
If you spend your time with your jaw dropped firmly on the floor by unison keyboard/ guitar solo's and can't get enough of odd time signatures, then by all means buy this album. If you desire that same technical virtuosity but want good songwriting too, then you might want to steer clear of this one.
There is really only one memorable "song" on this record and it's track # 7
"Grand Opus". It's a great song and the band should have used this song to guide them in creating the others.
Yngwie Malmsteen started this whole neoclassical metal business and few have ever come close to the perfection of his first three records.
Time Requiem could achieve that if they didn't sacrifice good songwriting for blatant excuses to jam a million miles per hour over poorly constructed rhythm sections. Track # 8 the instrumental
"Interplay Of Matters" finds them blatantly ripping off Dream Theater's
"Ytse Jam". I'm surprised a copyright infringement suit hasn't been filed over that one!
The band is adept and all possess amazing skills on their respective instruments. The lesson to learn here is that technical virtuosity will never replace good songwriting. The songs allow no breathing room and the "less is more rule" should have been applied. There are moments that shine through and give you a hint that they are capable of an excellent album should they forget the masturbatory soloing for a bit and write good songs allowing for amazing solo breaks in rightly placed segments. The vocalist is truly gifted but is a mere afterthought when trying to sift through all the solo's going on.
I really don't know why they even have a singer in the first place. You could drop out all the vocal tracks and you'd have an instrumental album that would be more entertaining than this supposed band effort. Wow! I am coming down hard on this album I know, but it needs to be said that they are awesome musicians and the album production is great thanks to Jonas Reingold, Henrik Larson, and Richard Andersson. It just gets old, quite frankly, having my ears jammed with solos that aren't even memorable or catchy. If one were to try and hum any of these "melodies" the larynx would probably pop right out of their neck and land on their newly cleaned all black (insert favorite metal band here) T-shirt!
It was a painful 10 spins folks.....the only relief was
"Grand Opus" and that song will probably make it on one of my jam CD's that I make for road trips.
That's about as good as it gets for this one though, so I will try and bow out here gracefully with apologies to any band members or fans I may have offended with this review. They are destined for greatness but it will only come with an ardent search for the muse of songwriting. These guys are on a great label here in the United States by the name of Regain Records North America. Check out their website because they have other great bands to hear as well. You'll find them at
www.regainrecords.com and
Time Requiem can be checked out at
www.anderssonmusic.com for all the latest news and some other more "positive" reviews of the band. Try to listen before you buy this one! It may your cup of tea or it may be a cup of P** depending on who you are and what gets you going.
Written by
David Friday, July 18, 2003
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