I always love getting Sensory Records releases for review. None of them really should be my cup of tea, and they seem to be built around taking everything I personally dislike in metal and making entire albums out of those things. And for some reason I always like them! So I'm going to talk about the two I recently got: When Time Fades by Suspyre (the more “ordinary” of the two), and the soundtrack a Norwegian band, Xystus', new rock opera, Equilibrio. Yes, they sent me the soundtrack to a rock opera. I'm stoked!
I'll talk about the Suspyre release first, since it's the more straightforward of the two. These guys hail from New Jersey, and they definitely have a classically influenced thing going on. I'm not talking just adding some strings or something on a couple songs like some bands do, but this could almost be a classical piece structurally, and really, a lot of the musicianship here has nothing to do with any form of popular or folk music. The musicianship here, as on pretty much all Sensory releases I've heard, is mindblowing. Lots of speed, every note crystal clear and cleanly played. Singer Clay Barton sounds great, with both great range and the ability to sound emotive when he needs to.
There's also a lot of stylistic variation going on here. From straight up power metal, to classically influenced prog metal, from thrashy sections to prog-rock off-time sections, from straight-up clean vocals to robot voices. Pretty much any time signature you could imagine is played in here, and almost anything goes. This is a pretty great release. Fans of bands like Dream Theater or Blind Guardian will probably be into it.
Also, these dudes have a few shows coming up. They're playing ProgPower 2008 in Baarlo, Netherlands. Then they're playing on the Prog Palace radio show in Gaithersburg, Maryland on October 11th. A little farther out, there's the Hellstock Music Festival in Palmetto, Florida, on January 17th of next year. And a little farther out than that, they're playing the Upper East Side Music Festival in New York City on February 28th.
Now onto the next release! It's a collaboration between Norwegian prog rockers, Xystus, and the US Concert Orchestra. As, quite literally, a rock opera, Equilibrio seems awfully elaborate for something by a band I've never heard of. I can't help wondering just how much it cost to put this thing on. This thing sounds like something only the richest bands could have afforded. But then, I really don't know much about putting on theater productions in Norway, and I really have no idea how popular Xystus are outside of the US (they said 4,000 people attended the shows in the liner notes, so they must be at least somewhat popular), so I'm probably dead wrong. The liner notes have pictures of the cast of the production in costume, a group picture of the “over... 130 people” who participated in its making, lyrics, and a picture of the band. So, of course, I'm going into this expecting something completely epic. Like over the top! And, well, these guys deliver!
The opening orchestral section of “Equilibrio Overture” sounds like something from one of the best fantasy video game soundtracks ever. The band themselves come in about halfway through, and really don't do much more than augment what's already there with rock instrumentation. Surprisingly tasteful, and yet, still incredibly over the top.
Of course, the next track, “Act 1, Sc. 1: My Song of Creation” features one of the actors (Simone Simons as the character, Lady Sophia) on vocals over an orchestral backdrop that sounds like something out of the Lord of the Rings movies.
“Act 1, Sc. 3: The Traveller” (sic) starts out by bringing back the theme from the overture, but with a more pronounced rock backing. The vocals this time are courtesy of the band's singer, Bas Dolmans, as Diegu the Traveller.
This leads into “Act 1, Sc. 5: Last Breath” on the album (I guess it should be noted that a lot of scenes appear to have not been included on the CD). This one is more of a rock track. A little more of a chaotic edge is present. The track is a dialog between Diegu and Death (George Oosthoek). Appropriately, Death's vocals are represented by, you guessed it, death growls! And he's pretty good at it, too.
The album kind of goes on like this. I mean, it's a rock opera, that's kind of to be expected. The next track, “Act 1, Sc. 6: Divided We Stand” (yeah, I cringed a bit when I read that title, too) is a dialog between Aveline (Michelle Splietelhof) and Primos (John Vooijs).
Really, I'm pretty sure everyone gets the idea here. This is as much an opera as it is rock, and although the vocal styles are definitely more slanted toward heavy metal styles, and the song structures probably take a lot more from rock, the way the instruments are used – both those of the band and the orchestra they're collaborating with - is both tasteful and yet completely over the top at the same time.
One thing I kind of wish had been included is a story synopsis. Just listening to this, I can get a vague idea of what's going on in any given scene, but the big picture is really unclear from the music alone. I'm sure it would be a lot clearer watching it onstage, but I'm just not getting it here. Regardless, the musicianship is top notch, all the vocalists are quite talented, and at the very least, what you're getting here is a pretty enjoyable listening experience that won't be lost on you if you're into this kind of music.
Unfortunately, it doesn't look like they're actually performing this anymore, and apparently they've just had a backing vocalist onstage to cover all the parts the band can't for smaller scale shows. The next scheduled show for them is a DVD release party, though, at Verkade Fabriek & W2 Concertzaal in North Brabant, Netherlands on January 11th of next year. So if you're in the area, keep a look out for that, 'cause it might be pretty awesome.
And more information about both bands can be found at their official websites, of course:
Soup rocks out like Yngwie
