Sonic Ray (Heavy Prog?)

Dear all,

A few weeks ago I received the request below from Sonic Ray's one and only member Bruno Gomez. I had a few spins of the press demo, and put my findings below - for all to read, and for the genre teams to consider.

At first listen, the metal influences in Sonic Ray's music are not hard to spot. The guitar work and drums are the giveaways there, not surprising I assume. Themes not uncommon to Dream Theater and even Metallica feature the first track Kids, but the vocals are not even close to those of said bands. Bruno's singing style is more pop/rock than metal on this track - in contrast to the second track King, which is even heavier in guitar sound (while a bit more melodic at the same time), where he applies a more raw, early 90's metal singing style.
Picture brings rest back to the listener, opening with (finger?)picked acoustic guitar and balladeer vocals. Once the electric guitar and drums kick in, this develops into a rock song that doesn't appeal get to me. It's jumping up and down in tempo and style. Clocking in at 11 minutes I guess it has to be varied, but it appears a bit like Dream Theater at their lowest highlights to me. It does show some of Bruno's multi-instrumentalist skills.
After this wall of sound, Sign opens in a more relaxed manner again, and gives a completely different feeling. It even contains multiple layers of vocals, in the intro. After the intro, it develops into an up tempo rock song, with a very dominant lead guitar. Here Bruno's love for this instrument becomes clear. After this, it moves through different moods like a true 12 minute epic should, but it fails to keep my attention.
Etrange Souvenir and Two sides become victims of that, because after the two long tracks, I tend to either switch of the music or only listen unconciously. Both are more on the rock rather than the heavy side, and less of an instrumentalist show case than Signs. Actually, I'm surprised when hearing these two tracks that Savatage is not mentioned as an influence for Sonic Ray.
Although I am not too keen on metal the past few years, with short 2 weeks exceptions, I think this band is worth a listen for heavy prog and prog metal fans. Inclusion in the archives is a different thing, but Bruno Gomez does have an enviable talent for playing music. Not to mention the noble action to give 50% of the album income to a charity organisation.

Production quality of the album as I heard it is a bit flat, everything sounds a bit muffled, but I can't be sure that that wasn't just due to the fact that I got the 'press downloads'.

As for the references to classic prog albums: I probably haven't found them all, and those I found, I won't give away. I will only mention that one AC/DC riff is the easiest to spot...

Sonic Ray wrote: SONIC RAY is my progressive rock project in which I compose, perform and record all instruments and vocals. I would like to know if you would be interested into making a review of my album, (or someone of Prog Archives). I do all on my own, so no label. The album will be on sale in a few days on my website. you can listen to it at the following adress : [SNIPPED OUT THE PRESS DOWNLOAD ADDRESS AND PASSWORD] You will recognized many influences such as Genesis, Dream Theater, Pink Floyd, Rush, AC/DC, Pain of Salvation, Symphony X… I did this album for prog lovers and you will identify a lot of elements that intentionally refer to famous Progressive Rock albums. Really fun to track actually :P In order to celebrate my first album, I have decided to associate SONIC RAY with REVES, a French organisation making dreams real for kids that have very strong diseases. Each time you download my album on my web www.sonicray.net (10€), I give 5€ to REVES. Of course you could download this album with Emule or Limewire. But I believe this is a great opportunity to do something positive while purchasing a nice progressive album (by the way, I have been a guitar demonstrator for years in France. I am sure you will like this concept album. Didn’t I tell you the subject? … dreams of course!).