SOULRAIN 21

We are in Greece. It's a lovely afternoon (13 April 2003) and a school bus is returning from a school trip. Inside the bus there are 49 students from 16 to 18 years old. It's around 19:20 when a truck hits in the side of the bus. The result was having 21 kids dead and 9 people injured. It was a real tragedy that shocked the whole country. Soultrain 21 is an album dedicated to those kids, a very heavy and touching concept.

The first time I listened to Wastefall was in a festival in which they played the same day with Black Label Society, Velvet Revolver and Black Sabbath. Although the sun was still shining, Wastefall did an excellent live show playing tracks mostly from this album. When I bought the cd, I was disappointed mostly by the drums sound. Later I noticed that in the cd the drummer was different. The album was recorded with George playing drums while the drummer I saw live and is the current drummer of Wastefall, is Kostis Papaleksopoulos.

The music has often been connected to Pain Of Salvation's. The music to say the truth is a mixture of power-metal with modern-metal (I won't say nu) and progressive-metal. Heavy riffs and melodies and Domenik Papaemmanouil's voice are what really show the power-metal tendencies while complexity and odd time signatures are what make the music progressive. Moreover there are a few other elements that make the music really interesting, experimental and unique such as influences from eastern music (Empty Heaven). The songs are mostly based on great, heavy and powerful riffs and have powerful choruses. The violin and keyboards show the other side of Wastefall with amazing passages.

I won't say much about the lyrics or the concept cause I think it was something that really touched me. One might say that it's very poor in delivery or the opposite but in this special case I'll try not to comment. I will just say that Domenik's voice, while not my cup of tea, is really expressive and emotional.

Overall I think it's a great album not only for Greek standards but national as well. I once happened to be inside the club they would perform at the time they did the sound check and I was pleased to see Domenik play the main riff of Blackest Eyes. It's easy to see the bands influences but nobody should think that Wastefall are a POS-clone or something. The artwork was made by the vocalist of Fragile Vastness (another great greek prog band) and is pretty good. A truly unique band that is worth checking if you are a prog-metal fan.

"It's just a walk there down the hill they went out to play to talk to April's rain in a sad strange afternoon, The years were few but what to do when the heart's flirting the sky the clouds are waving goodbye and the journey has begun...." Further listening: Fragile Vastness - A Tribute To Life