THE GIFT OF AWARENESS

Standing in a laundryroom isn't, for the most part, exciting. It is merely the walk of life and at least I can listen to prog in the meantime. But then I suddenly received a message from one of the members of P.A.W.N. asking, very politely, if I would consider reviewing their album. I felt both intrigued and thankful for such an opportunity, so I accepted and received a download link within minutes. Standing in the laundryroom I looked into the Bandcamp website to take an aural peek on what to expect. The first track, 'Sailors of the sky', really got my attention. I remember nodding my head in recognition. And the head keeps nodding.

To describe the music on "The gift of awareness" is both easy and tricky. The foundation is heavy metal, I would say, the structure progressive rock and the ceiling a mixture of symphonic and classical elements. There is a tiny hint of electronics in there aswell, which I enjoy. Neither of the parts take over. Rather they seem to colloborate and create something very varied and highly enjoyable. I would maybe compare P.A.W.N. to certain elements of Dream Theater, Ayreon and the heavier side of metal. Opeth isn't an all that far fetched likeness, except there is no growling on here. Still, they have their own style and vision. I would say that it is a heavy metallian symphonic brand of music. The vocals are very pleasant, especially the female ones. It never crosses into operatic nonsens but retains a beautiful tone that carries the music in a splendid way.

The album opens very peacefully with gentle piano. That's it. It moves from there into a very heavy section of metal. My least favorite song is 'The princess is out tonight' and while it is a good track it does not speak to me in the same way that the rest of the album does.

If there is a genre such as pirate prog then 'A voyage of uncertainty' certainly belongs in that fold. Very dramatic and powerful. It's like Running Wild was to make a prog rock album. I like that one very much. 'Vessels' opens in a powerful way but is also very varied and several moods and shifts in tempo and sound. 'Fatal wounds' is a crushing piece which is very nice.

The main reasons for me getting into prog in the first place is the cover art, the titles of the songs and the length of them. In the case of P.A.W.N. this is certainly appliable in the latter two. The length and titles speaks to me, coming also from a metal and hard rock background. In the case of the title track this becomes evident as it stretches out into a 26 minutes long epic of fantastic proportions. This is really the reason for getting oneself into this album. While the other tracks are great, this is something completely different. It is a multistructured song with several sections and keeps my interest all the way through. There are great keyboards aswell as heavy guitar, which keeps light and darkness in balance.

There is obviously alot of talent going round today and P.A.W.N. is certainly gifted and very talented. If this is their debut album i foresee an even grander one the next time. This is certainly music for people with an interest in both prog and heavy metal. P.A.W.N. manages to fly the flag of both genres.

Four stars.