SOULRAIN 21

Wastefall's sophomore album, "Soulrain 21", is given in tribute to the 21 who died in a terrible accident around the time they decided to record another album. The depth and emotion of this is quite apparent in the music, which suggests a meeting of the power and emotion of PAIN OF SALVATION and the melodic sense of ENCHANT.

The styles range electric all over the album, with the most common thread being powerful, heavy guitar riffs with intricate work from the rhythm section and lovely counterpoint from the keyboards, lead guitar, and violin. There are a few departures from this, such as the notable track Lullaby For The Gods, which starts with an orchestral overture remniscent of Nubuo Uematso and fades into chanting, electronic rhythm, and one of the most insightful spoken-word sections I've heard.

Frankly, anyone who likes their music heavy, intelligent, melodic, and progressive owe themselves a listen. Standout tracks:

Empty Haven Lullaby For The Gods Riot Of Oblivion 21

We are in Greece. It's a lovely afternoon (13 April 2003) and a school bus is returning from a school trip. Inside the bus there are 49 students from 16 to 18 years old. It's around 19:20 when a truck hits in the side of the bus. The result was having 21 kids dead and 9 people injured. It was a real tragedy that shocked the whole country. Soultrain 21 is an album dedicated to those kids, a very heavy and touching concept.

The first time I listened to Wastefall was in a festival in which they played the same day with Black Label Society, Velvet Revolver and Black Sabbath. Although the sun was still shining, Wastefall did an excellent live show playing tracks mostly from this album. When I bought the cd, I was disappointed mostly by the drums sound. Later I noticed that in the cd the drummer was different. The album was recorded with George playing drums while the drummer I saw live and is the current drummer of Wastefall, is Kostis Papaleksopoulos.

The music has often been connected to Pain Of Salvation's. The music to say the truth is a mixture of power-metal with modern-metal (I won't say nu) and progressive-metal. Heavy riffs and melodies and Domenik Papaemmanouil's voice are what really show the power-metal tendencies while complexity and odd time signatures are what make the music progressive. Moreover there are a few other elements that make the music really interesting, experimental and unique such as influences from eastern music (Empty Heaven). The songs are mostly based on great, heavy and powerful riffs and have powerful choruses. The violin and keyboards show the other side of Wastefall with amazing passages.

I won't say much about the lyrics or the concept cause I think it was something that really touched me. One might say that it's very poor in delivery or the opposite but in this special case I'll try not to comment. I will just say that Domenik's voice, while not my cup of tea, is really expressive and emotional.

Overall I think it's a great album not only for Greek standards but national as well. I once happened to be inside the club they would perform at the time they did the sound check and I was pleased to see Domenik play the main riff of Blackest Eyes. It's easy to see the bands influences but nobody should think that Wastefall are a POS-clone or something. The artwork was made by the vocalist of Fragile Vastness (another great greek prog band) and is pretty good. A truly unique band that is worth checking if you are a prog-metal fan.

"It's just a walk there down the hill they went out to play to talk to April's rain in a sad strange afternoon, The years were few but what to do when the heart's flirting the sky the clouds are waving goodbye and the journey has begun...." Further listening: Fragile Vastness - A Tribute To Life

Raw, complex and metal!

Another prog met again? Why not! Couple of reasons why people, especially the young generation, like metal-related music or they call it progressive metal style. First, the music contains complexity, heavy riffing and harmonies. Second, some people like it because of its energy, power and speed. Whatever the reason is, this progressive metal genre has become a recent trend. Me too . I like it also. In fact, even in this sub genre, I can find different kind of music styles from Fates Warning with its floating style, Dream Theater with its speed and complexity, Pain of Salvation with its hip-hop as well as floating style, Shadow Gallery which a bit of following the Dream Theater's stream - all of them I enjoy. So, I don't see the reason for not liking this sub genre.

The album lifts off with an instrumental with a bit of raw composition "Soulrain" (2:55) followed with "Stunned To The World" (5:06) which demonstrates raw guitar sounds and riffs. I can confirm that the singing style of the lead singer is similar (sometimes) with Daniel Gildenlow of Pain of Salvation. The music style is not similar as wastefall's music is raw (by design, I believe) especially in guitar mixing. "Empty Haven" (7:19) is a song with many tempo changes and relatively fast tempo." Lullaby For The Gods" (6:40) starts off with an ambient keyboard work followed with mellow music style. I like "Live With It" (5:28) because it has good melody and heavy guitar riffs and raw mixing. "Summerlonging Angels" (4:55) provides nice acoustic guitar work in fills and rhythm style. This song is similar to Dream Theater in style. The epic "Riot Of Oblivion (10:34) is a nice composition blending the heavy parts and a bit of symphonic style at background. I agree that "21" (5:03) is similar with Pain of Salvation with repect to, especially, singing style.

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Wastefall is a very interesting band in my opinion. What often bothers me with smaller, pretty unkown bands, is that the singer very often is to poor to make it worth listening (actually i belive this is a common problem for all progressive music.) Well... Wastefall does not have this problem. Domenik Papaemmanouil is an excellent singer and reminds me a bit of Daniel Gildenlöw from Pain Of Salvation. Actually Wastefall is kind of a Pain Of Salvation imitating band. But they do it pretty good with a bit heavier sound. The production is poor (listen at 3:40 on Lesser for example.) To sum up this is a pretty good album from a band with potential and a good singer. I hope to see more from them in the future!

Best tracks: Empty Heaven, Lesser, Self Extinction Project and Riot of Oblivion

Rate: 3