FACE OF OUR FATHERS

Funny how some albums are. When I heard about this Norwegian project I was very curious. Upon hearing some parts on the store I got very excited and quickly bought it. However, when I had the opportunity of listening to it with more atention at home in the next few days I was not as enthusiastic. Not that is bad. in fact it reminds me a lot of Arjen Lucassen´s Ayreon. It´s a one man project (Mattis Sörum) who plays most instruments and has several musicians and singers as guests, playing the characters of the story.

The music´s style here is very close to Ayeron too: leaning much more towards prog metal than to symphonic prog. it is quite melodic and well done. The vocal parts are dramatic (pehaps a bit too dramatic) and varied. The main problem here seems to be a lack of original ideas on the songwriting, while the arrangements and instrumental perfomances falls too much on common places. The general sensation is the one that you heard it all before and better.

Conclusion: after repeated spins I stil have the same feeling: a good record and nothing more. Nothing´s really wrong here but it also failed to generate any real excitement. Certainly this project can do better in the future if mr Sorum comes up with stronger tunes and more convincing perfomances (specially on the instrumental side of it). My final rating keeps shifting between 2,5 stars and 3. I´ll round up to 3 because overall it´s a pleasant CD. Face of Our Fathers is worth check it out if you like this style of music.