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 A restrained effort that holds plenty of raw potential.- |
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With the buzz surrounding the Progressive Metal act The Shadow Theory, you would imagine that a release from Odin himself were to be blessed to us all! While not Odin, it does involve a former member of both Deadsoul Tribe and Psychotic Waltz, Buddy Lackey (or Devon Graves as he also went by), and considering the attention the latter of those two bands received, it's a little understandable that Behind the Black Veil, the debut full-length release from The Shadow Theory garner so much attention. It also helps that this is basically a supergroup, as it involves other notable musicians such as Kristoffer Gildenlow from Pain of Salvation fame, as well as Johanne James (Threshold), and newcomers Arne Schuppner (Complex 7) and Demi Scott. While this supergroup's line-up does, for the most part, sound highly impressive, the album is just nothing that spectacular and suffers from the traditional woes of a supergroup release. For the Progressive community, this album simply doesn't live up to the hype that it was given. The music is good, but that's about it. There's nothing all that spectacular, and Behind the Black Veil just comes off more as a mainstream Progressive Metal effort sprinkled with random Ayreon-like moments of talent. Musically, the guitars do sound heavy and deep, but just not enough, and that's more then likely due to the production then the band themselves. It's hard to explain it, but it doesn't sound full. The best way to put it is to say that it sounds smokey, or like a shadow in a sense. The edge is there, but it just sounds hollow for some reason, though some patches sound fantastic then others. "I Open Up My Eyes" and "The Sound of Flies" really make the band sound a little weaker then the music clearly shows they are, but "Ghostride" hammers away and just feels like a full experience. Of course, this is one of the heavier tracks, but even the softer opening sounds richer then the similar "I Open Up My Eyes". For the most part, Behind the Black Veil is composed of slower material, with tracks like "Ghostride" being a real shock to the system that is greatly welcome. But, again, the hollow sound on the recording kind of hurts the band on many aspects, though the music is often somewhat enjoyable. "I Open Up My Eyes" was a rather simple song to start the release off with, finding it's long running time from it's insanely long and pointless introductory ambience that could have been greatly cut down. While not mediocre, the song itself could have been stronger. The vocals on that, and many other tracks, sound really out of place as well, coming off like they are being performed from the back of the throat and heavily nasally, which in some cases isn't that bad, such as "By the Crossroads" which has a dream-like atmosphere that works with it, whereas "I Open Up My Eyes" and "The Sound of Flies" sound absolutely ridiculous with the rather monotone vocal approach the way it is. After "Ghostride", however, the album picks up nicely. There are plenty of tracks, starting with that one, that really set up an atmosphere that was greatly lacking at the start, the music feels tighter and richer moreso due to the dynamic keyboards that felt lacking, and the vocal performances are far better and have some real emotional drive at times that match both the atmosphere, and just the level of power in the music. "Snakeskin" stands out a bit more then others due to the vocalist taking some singing inspirations from the band Tool which creep up through other songs on the album, but this track definitely showcases it through the distortion used on the vocals to make them spound so mechanical. It works for the most part, but ultimately just sound rather lame against such solid music. But, with a good chunk of rich Progressive Metal material, it's sad to say that the music basically reverts back to it's hollow sounding ways. "The Black Cradle" sounds as empty and unemotional as "The Sound of Flies", though quite dynamic through varying musical approaches. This track is followed up by the artsy acid-trip beatnick song "A Candle in the Gallery" which is mostly the vocalist whispering words against random effects and contributing instruments, but prodominantly an acoustic guitar and bongo drums, and random higher spoken words that often sound ridiculous. This is clearly part of a small conceptual section of the release, having ties to "The Black Cradle" which sounds more like the introduction to "A Candle in the Gallery" before the album rips itself out of the most boring musical approach it could go into "A Symphony of Shadows", which is perhaps the definition of Progressive incarnate. The track literally is like a symphony of shadows as the title depicts, having many epic symphonic moments that abrupt out of nowhere with silence used to set up the overall setting and reason for those symphonic moments, showcasing ideas of shadows as ghosts of persons lost, and being a very unique tracks to close the album out with. For every solid sounding track on Behind the Black Veil, there's another track that simply doesn't work. Musically, the album is all over the board, taking influences from traditional rock acts, to more Alternative Metal acts outside obvious Progressive Metal ideas and concepts. There's influences from bands that the members of this group are involved in, as well as Ayreon, all the way to influences from legends such as Tool and even Queen and artsy beatnik acts one would expect to find clad in black on a small stage in a hole-in-the-wall coffee shop. It's an obscure piece that is full of tracks that either work, or don't, but it easy to appreciate the amount of diversity the group incorporates into the recording. But, that's one of the downfalls. Aside that, some of the material does come off hollow, the vocals can sometimes feel out of place, and some tracks just sound generic and offer nothing too new to the concept. Of course, this makes Behind the Black Veil another typical sounding supergroup release, though it has plenty of potential that was discovered, but didn't feel utilized to it's fullest potential, being restrained too much. If "A Symphony of Shadows" is any suggestion to what the band can do when that talent and creativeness is not restrained, then hopefully future albums will find the band being a little more off the wall with their compositions. |
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Digital review copy of this release provided by: InsideOut Records.
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