THE PERFECT ELEMENT - PART 1

I will start by saying that I'm not a huge fan of prog metal, so if you are and you're reading this, take that into consideration. This is probably the heaviest PoS album I've heard (I have not heard the ones before it), so that may affect my feelings about it. I will say this though, PoS is the most interesting and original of all the prog metal bands I've heard so far........which isn't very many, admittedly.

The album is a concept, which is the norm for PoS albums it seems. The concept itself is quite good and is supported by some excellent lyrics by Gildenlow. His outstanding vocals are what drew me to this band in the first place, and he does not disappoint here. Some of the songs though, grate on me, with their overly growly vocal parts and thrash metal type guitar sounds. There are some excellent ones though, like the title track, Ideoglossia, and King Of Loss.

My big issue with this one, unlike other PoS albums I've heard, is that much of the time the songs are indistinguishable from each other. This is not the case on their following albums at all, however. Perhaps it is their particular style of heaviness, riff focused and not concerned with overt complexity like Dream Theater or similar bands. But for whatever reason, about half the tracks on here don't really stand out for me. Still, this is a good album, and my 3 stars should indicate more my luke warm feelings towards metal in general than the true worth of this album. If you like prog metal, you will most likely enjoy this album.

I read in a recent review that they sound "commercial". I can't imagine how someone could accuse them of that (though maybe I'm just not familiar enough with commercial music, since I haven't heard any in the past several years). This is, for my money, the most original prog metal band there is. But I enjoy their albums after this one more, as they head into a more dynamic symphonic direction with less of the metallic grind that shows up a lot on this album (though Scarsick sees something of a return to this). In any case, a solid 3 stars for me for this one.