Suspyre's
"A Great Divide" follows
their debut album "The Silvery
Image", which was highly acclaimed
by the press and the fans two years
ago. Although the band members had
in their initial plans to release
an EP, they changed their opinion
and extended their already composed
material to cover a full length release.
"A Great Divide" is a very
good progressive/symphonic power metal
delivery. It is especially addressed
to the fans of Symphony X, but the
friends of Angra and Dream Theater
can also find some interest. The album
is very diverse in its structure.
Because of the narration of a story
(unfortunately I don't have any lyrics
in front of me, so I assume from the
titles and the repetition of themes
that has a concept nature) forces
the band to adopt a structure with
short passages and lengthy parts,
with impressive vocal lines (a big
credit to Clay Barton) and skillful
instrumental sections, and with direct
and aggressive riffage and sensitive
melodic moments. It is a very impressive
work at times, but it's also very
tiring at other. This is the main
drawback of the album. The quality
of compositions is fairly imbalanced,
thus the interest of the listener
increases and decreases occasionally.
However the strong moments of the
album are really strong. This means
that the band has a potential to show.
The use of instruments like saxophone
enhances the atmosphere of the album,
while also works well for the variety
of the overall sound. The production
is very great and highlights some
of the virtues of the band, such as
the excellent performance on the guitars.
To summarize this is an interesting
release for the friends of symphonic
power metal and it comes in a time
that the genre needs so qualitative
releases. If they work on their compositions
more they will definitely impress
us in the future. |