GOD'S EQUATION

My only previous experience with this band comes from the album "Celestial Entrance". That album was filled with excellent songs and just a couple average ones. Sadly, the opposite is true in "God's Equation."

To those who haven't heard this band in the first place, PAGAN'S MIND sounds as close to a perfect mix of DREAM THEATER and STRATOVARIUS as you'll ever find. Here we have authentic progressive-power- metal, power metal with a lot of progressive elements or at times actually progressive metal with a distinct power metal sound. The high, heroic vocals, the heavy-but-not-annoying use of bass drums, shredding solos and speed, all is here, blended with odd time signatures, extended songs and instrumental passages, structures that are not typical, atmospheric moments and great craftsmanship.

What this album lacks that "Celestial Entrance" didn't is the great melodies and choruses. To honor the "power" element of a band, choruses have to be epic and memorable, they have to be the focus towards which the verses and other sections of songs inevitably conduce us. But in "God's Equation" we don't get as many of those as in that earlier album. Here we don't have any power-prog masterpiece as "Through Osiris Eyes" was in the 2002 great opus. The closest we get is probably in the second track (first song proper), "God's Equation." But even that good chorus doesn't reach the same level of grandeur that some choruses had in previous releases. It's like the band focused (and a lot) in writing some cool riffs and solos but couldn't stay focused for the climaxes of their anthems.

The musicianship here is top-notch. And that makes the lack of great melodies even more disappointing. When a band doesn't have a great singer or a skilled guitar player, it's easier to understand non- memorable songs. But when a band has a singer of the caliber of Rue, a guitarist of the skills of Lofstad, of a keyboardist with the precision of Tegner, it should just follow that they should write outstanding songs. They have done it in the past. They only achieve it halfway here in "God's Equation."

All in all, not a bad album by any means. This is good power-prog-metal, but not great. For true great albums, try SYMPHONY X's "V: The New Mythology Suite" or PAGAN'S MIND "Celestial Entrance." "God's Equation" is an enjoyable listen, but ultimately disappointing.

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