SUSPYRE

First of all,let me say: YES,I gave it 5 stars. I did so because I believe this album to be a necessary part of certainly any Progressive Metal fan,and it would make a great addition to any Progressive music lover. I will also say that I believe one reason I can be certain that this album deserves 5 stars is due to the fact that I have previously not been a huge fan of Suspyre. I always liked their music, but found it a bit too experimental and eccentric,to the point of being incoherent. In this album, they have kept their experimental and eccentric side, but have found a coherence that makes the music amazing. My favorite track on the album was Tranquility and Stress, which perfectly paints the picture of the emotional transition from Tranquility to Stress. I also loved The Whispers Never Written (especially the clever reference to Mozart's Rondo Alla Turca - does anybody remember Hunt the Wumpus?), and The Man Made of Stone. I was completely blown away by this album when I didn't even expect much from it, and listened to it four times in a two week period.

Suspyre tickle the senses of prog metal listeners on this self-titled album, on which snatches of a range of different prog metal styles can be caught here and there. There's some really neat djenty sounds going down, some interesting diversions into Atheist-influence jazz metal, and just when you think that's already slightly too many different styles to reconcile the band roll out a section reminiscent of classic Dream Theater.

Indeed, to an extent their very diversity is the problem - the compositions often don't sound very cohesive and the impression is that they're trying to pay tribute to all of their influences at once rather than trying to meld everything together into a distinctive signature sound of their very own. (Maybe it's just me, for example, but I tend to find that the more Dream Theater-inspired sections seem to occur in close proximity to Clay Barton's vocals.) An interesting listen but they need to work on bringing all these disparates together into a whole that's greater than the sum of its parts if they want to really get me excited.