TYRANNY

I discovered this band via this site, while looking for some good Prog Metal bands. So I gave a listen to the song "Victims" (mp3 stream on PA), and really liked everything about it, so I decided to buy this conceptual album because of that song. Now I realise I should have listened more of it before buying, since I fell I've wasted my money and time. I just can't believe the big ratings this album recieves, it's EXTREMELY overrated!! People seem to see a lot of beauty on this (well, almost all of it) uninteresting CD!! By reading reviews here I gave the album more and more listens believing it just hasn't 'clicked' on me, and I think I've heard it until now like 30 times!! But I couldn't like it, and I tried hard to like it!! Sadly, this is my first and maybe the last CD I purchase from this band.

So, why I give this rating ot the album?:

- A lot of Prog metal bands out there are so called "DT wannabes", there are some that can play really good AND compose very good. SG isn't the case. They're trying too much to sound like DT, and to compose, to play solos, to be at classy as them... but they failed. This is PRETENTIOUSNESS (in a bad sense) at it's best!! The best example you can find of a bad pretentious album is here.

- The result of this album is a bunch of uninteresting songs (well, almost all of them), BUT with really catchy vocals along the entire disc. I mean, these guys do not know to compose well, at least to keep my attention on the songs and enjoy them.

- The damn annoying choir they use on almost all the tracks!! That Queenesque choir, really does not fit with the songs and is used in a cheesy (poppy) way. And it would be obvious to say that the voices in the choir are miles away from the original and amazing Queen choir. A shame that choir destroys some of the songs...

- A minor problem, but the production isn't really good, as on some moments (best example, the instrumental "Chased") it gets really noisy and you can't know what's going on and appreciate what is played by the musicians.

But on this album are a few good (if not very good) songs, on the contrary, I could have given easily 1 star to this disc. The album is divided in two acts: much better Act I than II, IMO. The highlights here are the opener "War For Sale", which is a powerful way to begin the album; "Mystery", which could be a big radio hit because of that tremendously catchy chorus, has a pretty neo-prog feeling on it, and is a damn good poppy song, and fortunately here the choir is well used; "Hope For Us?" is a ballad with a very beautiful chord progression in the middle and an stunning guitar solo, very symphonic and emotional track; "Victims" has an awesome heavy riff, and the whole track is very pleasant to listen to, with great cold keyboard atmospheres, the best song on the album. About the Act II, nothing of it has really captivated me and I find specially "I Believe" (the longest song, 8:41) to be one of the most pretentious songs of all time, and the only good thing I can say about it is there's Labrie guest in vocals, and the second guitar solo on the instrumental intermission is very enjoyable. The other long track, "New World Order" has D.C. Cooper as guest musician providing great vocals, and taking the role on the story (I think) as the bad guy. Unfortunately, that song is ruined by the awful choir, that takes prescence every time...

Overall, an album that you should avoid unless you're a big Prog metal fan and want to dig some more into the genre, but I found this to be a great deception.

Rating: 2.0/5

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