SOUND OF SILENCE - SPIRITUAL JOURNEY - 2003

I never got so exited about a Prog Metal release since maybe LEMUR VOICE's first album or EMPTY TREMOR first album. That is the feeling I had while listening to "Spiritual Journey" of this surprising band from Greece. It would be easy to compare this album to DREAM THEATER's work, like an "Images And Words II" but it wouldn't be fair to the incredible amount of work put in this release. Sure the keyboard sounds are complete rip off of Kevin Moore's work, but I sincerely think the comparison can stop there.

What I like with the song writing of SOUND OF SILENCE, is that the songs are constantly evolving (in fact, isn't the true nature of Prog Metal?) into different time signature changes and tempo. Too often will a band be tagged as a Prog Metal outfit, but in the end, you only get a more technical Power Metal band, with all the repetitiveness that I hate so much in the "verse-verse-chorus-verse-verse-chorus" song structure of so many called Prog Metal band. SOUND OF SILENCE differs from that statement and thanks to them, I still have hope for the so called Prog Metal scene (for me, real Prog Metal should be called Avant-Garde Metal and should include bands like ARCTURUS, ATROX and MAUDLIN OF THE WELL to name a few).

Along with this great song writing, the production is good for this style, although it could have been better. The singer is another clone of Geoff Tate (I wonder how many of them were made actually) and even though is doing a good job on vocal, he may be the weakest link of the band, since his vocal melodies are repetitive and often uninspired. I would like to mention the bass work on this CD, as I really think that this instrument is often buried in mixes. This time around, the sound is sharp and it adds a lot to the already incredible rhythm section of SOUND OF SILENCE.

I'm glad I gave a chance to this band, as they had proved me that there was still some band trying to make Prog Metal evolve. (Online February 6, 2004)
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