I'M YOUR SAVIOUR

2011 sees the German act TOXIC SMILE celebrating its 15th anniversary as a band. And patient followers got a nice treat for the occasion, as a new studio album by this veteran outfit was made available in the fall of 2010. Their fourth full-length studio effort is called "I'm Your Saviour", and follows seven years after their previous production, "Retro Tox Forte".

"I'm Your Saviour" exemplifies progressive metal of possibly the gentlest variety possible whilst retaining ties to the genre in general and to the Dream Theater sound in particular. If you prefer your progressive metal to be hard-hitting, complex and reasonably challenging, you'd better approach this disc with caution. But those who find the concept of blending mainstream-oriented rock with progressive metal to be a sound idea, and who tend to prefer a slick production and an emphasis on easily digested melodies, will most likely find this latest effort by Toxic Smile to be one very well worth investigating.

Toxic Smile is classified under progressive metal. I guess they use loud guitars a lot. Liquid Wall is probably the closest here that they come to the likes of Dream Theater with their pseudo-classical bombast. But that's only a part of the story. After all, their background is academic. Half of the songs on I'm Your Saviour are in the vein of the opener - densely packed, synth-led and bombastic. But the other 4/9ths are pure adult pop - from the acoustic Walked by Fear to the requisite jazzy Pride and Joy. Their variety has always been impressive, but sometimes I wish for more adventurism within the songs of I'm Your Saviour. Good and underappreciated band, though.

Well, Toxic Smile may not exactly be Spinal Tap, but they do seem to have an issue with drummers and by the time they came back with their third studio album in 2011, seven years on from 'Retrotox Forte', they were also on their third drummer with the rest of the line-up remaining the same. It was now some fifteen years since the band had started, and they are clearly on the same path as they have been throughout namely their existence, namely progressive metal that also contains a large amount of dynamics, mostly from the high use of piano and the bass sometimes taking centre stage, with the wonderful vocals of Larry B. over the top of them all.

Toxic Smile have created their own style, which although often likened in some ways to Dream Theater, is actually very much their own. They mix some shredding guitars with melodic passages, piano, a guitarist and keyboard player that have been as one since the very beginning and all the years of recording and playing together has just made that bond ever tighter. They rarely produce really lengthy songs, instead concentrate on producing punchy material with hooks and melodies that sometimes moves into almost pop areas, whereas at others it is so complex and convoluted that on-one could ever mistake them for anything apart from a highly adept prog metal act. Their previous studio album is my least favourite, but a lot has happened with the band between that one and this, and 'I'm Your Saviour' more than makes up for any shortcomings that one may have had.