DWELLING IN THE OUT

Good musicians + terrible voice - originality = mediocrity.

That equation sums all that I have to say about this copy/paste exercise.

Let me just very briefly elaborate in each constant in the equation:

Good musicians: well, the guys can play, and very well. Great guitarists, a very good drummer and very capable bass player. There's no room for complaining about the instrumentalists. The recording, by the way, is cristal-clear, so one can enjoy the quality of the players even more.

Terrible voice: DREAM THEATER's James Labrie has always divided the fans: either you love him or you can't stand him. I happen to like his vocals a lot, he's one of my favorite vocalists in all prog. Now, what would happen if suddenly Labrie had a throat infection and couldn't sing, and his vocals chords were damaged in the process? Well, enter DIGITAL RUIN's singer to give us an answer: HE. He's exactly what I just described, Labrie after an earthquake, something like that. He's this band's weakest link. If you like DT and ever complained about LaBrie vocals during the AWAKE era (when he had problems and couldn't sing as well as always), then imagine that voice, take all the character off of it, and you have DIGITAL RUIN's voice.

Originality (or lack thereof): The music is very similar to DREAM THEATER, with hints of FATES WARNING and DREAM THEATER, also with influence from thrash metal and DT. There's not much originality in the music.

Mediocrity: this music, besides all the problems I mentioned, is mediocre. I couldn't find a single chorus that was memorable, a single solo that played with my heart and with my mind. I could find a couple ofm decent riffs (mostly in the title track) but even the song structures are very simple.

Not a great album. It's not a tragedy as it has good musicianship, but it's not enough to warrant any recommendation.