CHANGING TIMES

Influenced by the social and economic situation of our days, Spanish prog metallers Wake of Confusion released their debut album 'Changing Times' in 2012. A number of interesting and important social messages come through the lyrics and in a 'controlled-anger' manner WoC deliver dynamic progressive metal in the vein of Dream Theater.

Seven compositions in a little less than 50 minutes provide a balanced package (not too short, not too long) with the music led by the powerful progressive metal riffs of Rober Dominguez and the aggressive tone of Luis Perez. The paths taken on this release follow closely 'Images and Words' and 'Awake'-era Dream Theater while a hint of Symphony X is added here and there, particularly on the singing approach and the sequence/construction of the riffs. Their European origin appears less prominent and mainly through the keyboard passages of Loreto Otero, bringing to mind acts such as Vanden Plas or Royal Hunt.

WoC are definitely not short of ideas; the album comes out as very technical, with the balance tilting slightly towards aggression and less on melody. This does not come as a surprise as the three mentioned above all have music degrees. However, the highlights from this album come from those tracks that exert the highest degree of originality: 'Bored Millionaires' incorporates Arabic elements over modern Dream Theater-influenced heavy riffing and 'Techno-Barbarity' mixes 70's progressive rock with references to Rush, Uriah Heep (!), a bit of Yes with a keyboard-filled atmosphere and heavy-tone pianos, over two or three different but equally intriguing sections.

Overall, a very good debut from WoC that shows a lot of potential for the future, providing they focus on the most innovative elements of their sound and invest more on originality and musicianship, not necessarily built on their technical ability (which they have already proved).

3+/5 stars

Originally compiled for www.justincaseradio.com

3.5 really

Wake of Confusion is a young prog metal band coming from Spain. They self released this year their first opus named Changing times , wich is fairly good album from start to finish. I was quite glad to see Spain again on the map of prog metal scene, because as far as I know Spain is not an oasis of prog metal bands, the only ones I an think of right now are Pyramid and Time Symmetry both very ok in by opinion. So, Wake of Confusion appears when they are needed more with solid sound and catchy arrangements, in the over populated DT clones. The music is great, with complex passages, very good is the guitar parts and aswell I like a lot the keyboards provided by female keyboardist Lotero Otero, she had some very nice parts like on Bored Millionaires, very good piece. The voice is fiting perfectly into this kind of music and has some very good vocal lines. The album is well balanced with long pieces and shorter ones, each one giving to the listner what he expected from a prog metal album. The musicianship is top notch as I expected, almost all memebers have degrees in music and aswell have enough years behind in musical bussines to come in the end with a solid album. So, all in all an enjoyble prog metal album to me, some similarities with let's say Time Symmetry also from Spain as I said above, Symphony X but without that many neo classical aproach. Voodoo, opening track, Bored Millionaires or ending track are worthy prog metal tunes to my ears. 3.5 stars, very good cover art and all art work. Definetly I'll keep an eye on their music, because I like what I've heared here.