THE WINDOW PURPOSE

Thanks to the marvellous production, this record sounds just great... Oliver Phillips and Christian Moos, both part of the band Everon, are also producers... They have their own studio, where they produce other bands apart from Everon. And Wolverine is one of these bands... And they are really really good! This is the only album I've heard from them, but surely I will hear more in a near future, because I'm really impressed with the quality of this debut.

The Window Purpose is not really original. Like I said, if you take some of the riffs and the keyboard sound (specially the Kevin More's one...) from Dream Theater, and you mix it with some of the Pain of Salvation ambiences and melancholy, you'll get something similar to this album... Nevertheless, I think that Wolverine have enough personality to make this album recognisable and original. Like the electronic elements they sometimes use (have the members of Riverside heard this album? I'd swear they have) and the use of the drummer's growls... This growls are specially cool, because they are used like an emotional and expressive weapon. They are really appropiate, specially to give strenght to some choruses!

In the choruses, the Oliver Phillip's voice is also hearable (Leaving Yesterday, His Cold Touch, Toward Loss...), and together with the female's guest voclas, they give the album a lot of vocal richness... Of course, thanks too to the pretty good Stefan Zell vocals, who sounds powerful and inspired the whole record through. His voice is deep and expressive, but sometimes he surprises with some nice high- pitched shouting! The rest of the musicians are also competent... The rythmic section is not spectacular, but they make their work really well. The guitars are rich and variated (I absolutely enjoy some parts...), and so are the keyboards: I LOVE the keys in every song! Specially in Coma and Toward Loss... I really don't know where Wolverine took this keyboardist called Andras Baglien, but he's a really talented guy!

I'm still impressed with the keyboards in Toward Loss and Coma...

Comments of the re-release version: apart from a renowed artwork (wich is really beatiful...), the re- release in Earache Records has a ten minute long track called Again! I recommend its listening, because is really good... I think the instrumental developement is great, and some parts are really hard, almost extreme metal. It even surpases some of the tracks of the album!

Best songs: His Cold Touch (the initial guitar melodies are just fantastic... And so are the lyrics, really touching), Leaving Yesterday (marvellous chorus for a semi-ballad, vocally stunning...), Toward Loss (it start very Dream Theater-like... But then comes the growls mised with the clean vocals, to make a original and different track), Coma (stunning beginning... And the best solos in the album, specially the first one) and Post-Life (Stefan sings his best here... And it's a really proper ending) But honestly speaking, I think this album has no flaws. I just can't mention one weak track in The Window Purspose!

Conclusion: if this album was a bit more original, I would given it five stars... But the evident similarities with Dream Theater and Pain of Salvation, give some sensation of déjà-vu to the experienced prog-metal listener. Nevertheless, the quality of this music is really high, and so is the luxurious production and the instruments playing. So if you like melancholic prog-metal... I just can say that this is one of the best album from this style I've ever heard, despite it has some lack of originality.

My rating: ****

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