OBLIVIOUS TO THE OBVIOUS

I still remember the first time I heard HOURGLASS' "Subconcious" album a few years ago. That first track blew me away, but with that album clocking in at almost 80 minutes in length it lost most of it's steam well before it ended. On their latest recording which took 4 1/2 years for them to complete, they bury us with almost 140 minutes of music over two discs. And while I could condense this to 50 minutes and say it's a solid 4 stars, the reality is what it is. Way too much music here that is good but nothing more. It brings this down to a 3 star rating. Many Prog-Metal fans have hailed this as one of the years best but in my opinion REDEMPTION's "Snowfall On Judgment Day" is the years best Metal album with this one quite a ways back.

Too much music here to really go over it all, but the first album starts with "On The Brink", and this is the highlight of this whole recording. It has this nice heavy intro with lots of bottom end. Synths join in then the tempo picks up around 1 1/2 minutes. It settles with piano before 3 minutes but not for long. Vocals after 4 minutes. A great throaty scream as well. I like the guitar before 8 1/2 minutes. It sounds like a mosquito. The bass is fat in the excellent instrumental section that follows. Vocals return before 11 minutes. Fantastic start.

One thing that bothers me about this album is the same thing that brought down "Subconcious" later on, and that's where the lyrics seem to become more important than the music.The only problem here is that THAT happens a lot more on this recording because it's so long. Anyway lots to like here but there are too many passages that seem to coast musically as the focus is put on the vocalist. Just my taste in music and distaste for double albums I suppose.