SELF EXILE

A lot of people are reminded of Pain of Salvation when they listen to this band, and this is understandably so, however, I also get a very strong vibe of Audioslave on this album. This album is also much heavier than PoS is, I'd say much closer to Dream Theater/Nevermore as far as guitars/bass go. So despite the dynamics of the lead vocalists, I'll go ahead and throw those comparisons out the window.

The vocals offer more of a "mainstream" rock/metal feel to them than a "prog" sound. One thing that always disturbed me with this album is that they would seem like they would get a really great riff going, but then they would move immediately on to something else, and so the moment where you go "man that's really cool" only lasts for a few seconds.

Another thing that disturbs me here is why metal band's feel the need to have the soft-ballad. Minutes to abandon is such a track, and while it isn't terrible, it offers nothing memorable or unique. The best track here is probably Dance of Descent, which has intriguing songwriting structure that reminds me of Orphaned Land's Mabool. Overall it's not that bad of an effort, but I never feel really moved by any of these tracks.