2007-11-13
Ireland's
Era Vulgaris have delivered here quite an interesting metal album, well played, very well produced, it has a few pitfalls, but mostly it works. The one thing I just can't make up my mind about – is it really one band throughout the album?
As you may have understood, there's some serious diversity here, I've heard of post-hardcore bands incorporating elements of Jazz and fusion into their music, but this is fucking ridiculous, these guys move from hard core to prog metal, extreme metal to Jazz to traditional metal without as much as a blink. It may sound contrived on paper, but it actually works, if you're in an open-minded mood.
Brittle, which opens up the proceedings, was a let-down at first, I thought I was heading for another semi-professional hard core band with prog aspirations, but the more the track progressed I came to understand these Irish madmen were going into something much more bold and unique. Prog, extreme metal, it's all in there.
Second track actually threw in something which came off as folk sounding, I don’t know what pills are these guys on, but I'll take a pack please.
The instrumental "Imram" is an example of just how complex can these guys be even without a psychotic vocalist to accompany them. Their proficiency with their instruments is evident in every note.
Now, thanks to Dream Theater, when you hear the term "prog metal", you think high, melodic vocals, amazingly complex drum rhythms, and faster-than-light guitar leads with plenty of keyboard garnish on top, but this is different
Here prog means progressive, as in forward-thinking, visionary. These guys manage to re-think and re-structure metal as we know it into something original and interesting, it may sound too extreme for mainstream prog metal fans, but anyone with enough balls to carry this through will be a better man for it.
Alon Miasnikov
