THE PROBLEM OF PAIN: PART 1

I think I've found out what the problem of pain is. Well, it's painful! And I really don't need an album full of mediocre music to tell me that. Or, actually, I guess it was all designed to be this way. After all, what better way to learn about the problem of pain than having to endure the painful experience of listening to this record?

First of all, I don't know about the "metal" part of the progressive-metal categorization of this band. Maybe in their earlier albums they were heavier, but what we have here is retro-rock with some hard guitars here and there, weak vocals that seem to come straight from the 80's, and some guitar solos. That's as heavy as this album gets. Overall, it's a hard rock album, nothing more than that.

The music is very uninspired. It's supposed to be inspired by the "highest" of sources (for religious people, what could be higher than, well, religion?), but it rarely comes out as anything but a weak exercise in hard rock with preachy lyrics that teach nothing and mean nothing. What are we to learn from Job's tale? Probably what we can truly learn is how not to write a coherent tale to convince millions that not- questioning things is the best way to go. Maybe this is another designed effect. After all, Job's supposed to have had enormous patience. The same patience we have to have with this album.

Don't get me wrong. It's not that it's the religious factor the one that hurts the album. There are people that believe in things like that, and that hasn't stopped them from releasing masterpieces (check NEAL MORSE's "Sola Scriptura" for the best example: a music masterpiece with religion as subject of the lyrics). Ultimately, an album with bad lyrics or a poor concept can survive if it has good music. It's the MUSIC what is lacking here in this TORMAN MAXT record.

The songs are incredibly short, therefore they don't have time to develop into anything really complex or, say, progressive. There are just a few good moments here and there, mostly when the keyboards are left to their own devices (like in the final moments of the whole album). The "Overture" is not all that bad. But from "Job's song" on, the album gets really weak. That song, for example, starts decently enough, but then the guitar seems to be out of tune (or playing out of key), and the riff is so mundane, so hard-rock- bar-in-any-lost-town-in-America-like that it's difficult to see the progressiveness. Arpeggios without beauty, choruses that aren't memorable. And a song called "Satan's first song" that it's so un-evil that it can't have the desired effect. The way the band tries to convey the idea of evil is by recording a few moments of feedback and noise at the end of the song. Not incredibly original.

The musicianship of the band is just ok. The drummer is capable but not very original. The bass and keys are decent. The guitarist is obnoxious. Yes, he can solo a little bit, but sometimes (and more often than not) he seems to be out of key. The vocalist is not that good, and has too much a soft voice that doesn't convince anybody of anything.

All in all, a very weak album that should get a 1.5 rating from me if that was available. But, for reasons left unsaid, this time I'll round my rating down, and give TORMAN MAXT the necessary stimulus to come back with a better effort than this.

You know, believing in god just by itself won't make you write good music.