WAY BACK HOME

Bastian Per delivers an accessible and melodic prog metal showing some influences from Dream Theater and Neal Morse with some more straightforward rock at times. There's a guitar solo on each song and good use of the keyboards throughout the album. Some turns and twists with cool piano breaks to calm things down are present. The vocals remind me of James Labrie at times but to be more pleasant because the music is not played at a fast pace. The production is excellent including the drums parts who are really good. There are some nice multipart vocals on a couple of songs and some catchy guitar riffs and strong keyboard melodies. Overall, this album is an excellent addition to your prog metal collection and a slight improvement from the first album.

A melodic, dramatic heaviness leaning towards Dream Theater or Haken. An Argentine project BASTIAN PER named after the frontman 'seBASTIAN prosPERi' (easily understood) released a good creation in the summer of 2021 under such a 'no-good' situation all over the world, to launch power and encouragement for the audience. Their sound attitudes would be to blend orthodox progressive metal with listener-friendly pop spices, that are obviously expressed in their second album.

"A Better World ~ Overture" has a kind of fascinating stream. After quiet acoustic lines featuring smooth voices, the powerful wondrous departure opens the curtain. steady and rigid instrumental plays are crucial for their musical stance. Sometimes drastic earthy texture, sometimes beautiful hopeful brightness can be squeezed into our ears and inner minds. This beginning should be a precious luxurious souvenir for us. The colourful sound mixture filled with various appearances could express their musical intentions and strategies, let me say. "Through The Fires" involves their energetic voices / chorus and slightly depressive melodic achievements, sounds catchier and more favourable for us though. There are some complicated rhythmic moments but who cares ... it will be good if it's enjoyable.

Anyway, the opening keyboard playing in "Seize The Day" definitely impresses me in a classical manner. This moment is my treasure, flooded with delicate, delightful melody lines and thrilling keyboards-oriented dreams. Also as for "The Safe Place", always wondering why progressive metal combo can create such brilliant, beautiful songs so amazingly. On the other hand, Derek Sherinian's keyboards solo play in "Greatness Delirium" is another brilliance. A bit short track is full of charm and bright wish, that will give us dreamy dreams and hopeful hope. The tited track sounds pretty acceptable, in the similar vein to adult oriented rock in mid 70s. Mellow rhythmic touches and dreamy melodic movements remind us that Kiss meet pop ballad in our adolescents, but too soft and smooth for us to get it as progressive.

As a result, it sounds like they blend heavy / metal progressive with conventional popular rock in the 70s. Yes to be honest, let me say they would have treated their creation with more of full-blown progressive metal or heavy prescription ... a fantastic album nonetheless!

Bastian Per's Way Back Home is an album that I feel like you need to be a certain type of music fan to really get a lot out of, this being one that already has an inherent liking towards a lot of the standard conventions of prog metal or at least the heavier side of prog, all of which are presented in a rather dramatic, passionate way. As time has gone on I've found myself gravitating further away to such music, but even so I still think that this one is interesting enough to have some pertinent comments to make about it. Stylistically there's a lot of influence that has been lifted from bands such as Dream Theater and early Haken, with grandiose passages being contrasted with more heavy, metal oriented elements to attempt providing a stronger sense of momentum to the music. This is especially notable in the opening track A Better World and Overture, which are also some of my favourites here due to the way it definitely feels as if it leans far harder on the symphonic, almost whimsical elements of prog soundscapes, with some interesting keyboard usage throughout and a sense of progression that almost feels as if it's telling its own little story. I appreciate this for the way it's very competently structured and is able to have its own bit of distinction in the genre, for however subtle it might be, as giving things a degree of personality is something I always consider an essential aspect of effective music creation. I'll say however that I'm not quite sure how I feel about some of the more conventional tracks that appear throughout however. This is mainly because while I enjoy the underlying sense of simultaneous frustration and desire to create an empowering tone to rise above the tough circumstances people find themselves in, the music itself can often border a bit too much on a sort of 70s-80s AOR sound that ends up making everything feel as if some of this emotional impact ends up being lost.

I personally believe that there are a lot of elements of this that are on the cusp of transforming into something a bit more distinct and powerful that are simply not quite explored enough here to separate a lot of the music from those similar to it. This album often feels as if it's at its best when the more grandiose, detailed areas of the instrumentation is at the forefront, and it really feels to me like if a bit more of this epic, progressive feel was to be combined with the more straightforward pop elements incorporated, it would allow both sides to flourish in a far more meaningful way and serve to bolster the emotional side of what is brought to the table here. Despite the fact that I've brought up a lot of criticisms and all that, I'll still say that I find this quite a competently put together album that will undoubtedly appeal to people who are more strongly invested in this style of prog music on the whole, as it's no longer exactly my cup of tea, but I can still appreciate this one. There's quite a bit of potential here and I believe that Bastian Per can certainly put out something truly great to me in time, as I definitely see a bit more of an artistic voice and more professional, refined compositions developing here when compared to their debut Epic Journey, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens from here. Give this one a shot if you're typically into progressive metal, it touches upon a lot of the same elements of appeal, and while I wouldn't call it essential, it's rather good for those who are typically fans of this music.

Best tracks: Overture, Deadly Virus, The Mystery Behind

Weakest tracks: Defeat Device, Through the Fires, Way Back Home

BASTIAN PER from Argentina is a heavy prog / prog metal project led by guitarist Sebastian Prosperi. This is their second studio album, following Epic Journey (2019). I want to say right away that a great deal of this music is not 'my cup of coffee'. While I certainly find several things to enjoy from more atmospheric heavy acts such as Riverside, Porcupine Tree and Opeth, it's the *metal* substance in itself that I don't generally enjoy at all. Aggressive and loud music just makes me feel angry, to summarize it. Considering this album, I wholeheartedly agree with the previous reviewer Kempokid: "Way Back Home is an album that I feel like you need to be a certain type of music fan to really get a lot out of". True, you need to like prog metal. Especially Dream Theater influences seem quite clear.

The album is very well produced and played. The brief, calm and easily likeable opening track 'A Better World' reminds me of Riverside at their calmest, also for the sensitive vocals. 'Overture' is a gorgeously powerful instrumental with a symphonic orientation, and since the metal side is not too strongly present in it, I like the piece. 'Defeat Device' however dropped me into the ground: this is exactly the kind of fast-paced prog metal I rather steer way from. 'The L onely Shepherd' is a fine piece balanced between metal and modern prog rock such as Spock's Beard. 'Seize the Day' i s a relatively moody and atmospheric track, not without some metal nuances, which could be compared to Riverside a nd Porcupine Tree.

I believe that those who enjoy the bands I've mentioned above -- including their heavier side too -- will find this album v ery good or even excellent. And the moments that I like, I do so with a close association to the subjectively more f avourable musical expression of those bands, especially Riverside and Dream Theater. Mariano Barreiro admittedly is a pretty good vocalist, capable of Riverside's Mariusz Duda -like clarity and passion. Also there's a lot of delicacy on the k eyboards, for example the piano on the rather beautiful song 'The Safe Place'. In a way, I am actually tempted to give t his well crafted album four stars with an aextra objectivity (ie. not minding the metal essence I don't personally enjoy), b ut then again, one might question the amount of originality. So let's stick to three stars.

P.S. The cover art is interesting to examine in detail -- using my magnifying glass I noticed almost hollogram-like e ffects.

This the first time I have come across this Argentinian progressive outfit, but this 2021 album was actually their second album, following on from 2019's 'Epic Journey'. The quintet of Mariano Barreiro (vocals), Sebastian Prosperi (guitars & vocals), Gabriel Kohout (keyboards), Martin Sokol (bass) and Maximiliano Cataldi (drums) even managed to get in Derek Sherinian to play on the closing track, somewhat cementing their place in the heavy prog and prog metal community. This is a concept album about today's current humanitarian issues, and for the most part one would not realise that this release is from South America as the English is very good indeed with little in the way of accent.

Musically they are firmly progressive rock throughout, but they do go through significantly different styles as they move through the album, which means that at times it can feel quite disjointed, and at one point I even checked to see if it was still their release as I felt it was so at odds with what had gone before. Taken on an individual level there is no doubt that there is some wonderful playing on here, particularly some amazing bass, and even though the keyboards are often very Eighties or Nineties in style and sound, there is a lot to take from this. However, I do feel that an outside producer may well have constrained some of their experiments and made it a more cohesive release throughout. When they go full out prog metal then this is a band in flight which has a great deal to offer, and the same must be said when they are more out of left field, it is just that all on one album it gets just a little too much. I do look forward to hearing more from them though, and if you want a band which is prepared to push the envelope then this may well be for you.